


Welcome To Hell

by izzylerd (orphan_account)



Category: USWNT - Fandom
Genre: Call Of Duty AU, F/F, Jk lotta angst, a lil smut, but still fluff, klingenmoe if you squint hard enough, little angst, lotta fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:16:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 69,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/izzylerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is broken. The population is unknown. Atlas and Sentinel are the only ones left in America. Tobin works for Sentinel. Alex is a run away from Atlas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Atlas and Sentinel

**Author's Note:**

> That was the worst summary I think I have ever written. Anyways, welcome! So I already have one short fic up that I'm pending on extending it, but this fic will definitely be long. I don't know how many chapters it's gonna have though. I don't exactly have a posting schedule figured out yet but I promise I won't abandon this. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
> 
> I'm open for opinions, hit me up ; http://becauseizzy.tumblr.com

Seven years ago the world turned to a war ground. Countries turned against each other, and government systems went to war with each other within the same country. The remaining population, which is somewhat unknown, is divided by two companies; Sentinel and Atlas. 

Atlas is mostly made of the corrupt officials, ex military, and what's left of the American government. Their system is cruel and unfair, but people still continue to work for them.  
The Sentinels are mostly a group of rebels fighting back against Atlas. They fight back when they can, going on covert missions to find their data, destroy their plans, and take down their leaders. 

Currently, Tobin is on her way to the Golden Gate Bridge where an extraction team will recover stolen data and any supplies from an abandoned base. Atlas has been known to scout around the area, so her nerves are on edge about the mission. She doesn't really have a reason to be nervous, she's been doing this for four years now and she has the best team in the entire Sentinel company. Her best friend, Kelley, is sitting next to her on the helicopter as she habitually cleans the arms of her Exo Suit.

"Are you nervous?" Tobin asks Kelley as she stares out at the open water. Things seem almost normal, though Tobin doesn't really know what normal feels like anymore.  
"As always", Kelley laughs coldly.  
"Kelley", across from Tobin, Hope is giving Kelley a scolding look, being Kelleys girlfriend means dealing with her negative attitude about the war. Tobin knows Hope doesn't mind, and her positive outlook on things has helped Kelley in a lot of ways.  
"I just don't understand why it's only us on this mission"  
"The less people we have the quicker we'll be out. Plus, with a smaller team there's less of a chance we'll get shot", she tells them.  
"Wonderful way of looking at it Tobs", Hope says sarcastically to her. 

The helicopter jerks around for a second before Ashlyn's voice comes through the speakers, "The landing zone is a little hot but I haven't seen anything on the radar for a while so you should be good for a quick in and out. Carli said to get the data, search any of the remaining rooms for supplies and then get out. There's a storm brewing somewhere along the coast and I would appreciate it if we didn't have to go back home in it"  
"You got it, let's get this thing done", Kelley stands up and unlocks the door, jumping down before the copter even hits the concrete.  
"I really hope she doesn't get herself killed", Hope mumbles.  
"We'll be fine, just get in and get out", Tobin pulls her rifle from her back and checks her Exo Suit readings.  
"You ready?" Kelley asks.  
"Yeah", with a press of a button all of their Exo Suits shifts into battle mode and their helmets twist and pull down over their faces.

////

"This place is a literal shithole. There's barely anything working, how did they even manage to store our data here?"  
They had been searching for a good ten minutes, only coming up with minimal supplies and no luck with the trashed computers. Everything was mostly rubble, holes in the tall ceiling and thick walls proved it. There had been a few dead bodies laying around, all of them had been Atlas so Tobin took the chance to go through their Exo Suits for data. She had come up with nothing but maps upon maps, which were useful but not as useful as their missing data.  
"It has to be somewhere, it's not like they could keep it floating in mid air"  
Tobin's head flings up from looking at the trashed screens, "Kelley you're a genius"  
She turns around from her spot in the rubble, "You don't think they actually-"  
"It's the only way they could've hid it from us. They know we're smart enough to check the computers, or what's left of them, and to check any of the stuff they left behind. But I'm telling you, they think they're above everyone so they don't expect us to find it when it's literally hanging over our heads", she scrambles around the panels trying to find a button, or anything really that looks like it would do something different.  
Tobin hears Hope mumble something but the distortion of her helmet keeps her from hearing it, "Did you say something Hope?"  
She sighs, "I found something but I don't know if it will show us something or blow us to pieces"  
Tobin walks over to her and moves to look under the panels like she is. A large, red, but somehow discreet button, is placed just above one of the panels. There isn't any instructions or writing next to it, so pressing is would be dangerous. The probability of it just blowing up was slim though.  
"Alright, Hope get behind something. I'll press it with my foot and if it blows you get out of here. If it doesn't, then we have our data", Hope gets up from under the screen and stands next to Kelley on the other side of the room.  
"On my mark", Tobin moves so her foot is just barely touching the button, "Three, two, one-"  
She smashes her foot against the button, immediately covering her head but no explosion goes off, and the air is filled with silence.  
"Tobin, you should look at this", she lifts her head up from under her arms and is struck by excitement.  
The empty air is now filled with holograms of streaming data, maps, and files. Tobin stands up and walks to the middle of the data cube, watching as it trails over her skin. The room is darker around the edges now, the projection of the data glowing brightly at the three soldiers.  
"Woah", is all they can say.  
"How do you think we can get the data?"  
"I have no idea Kelley", Tobin continues spinning in the middle as an endless amount of data streams in the air.  
"Welcome, how may I assist you?" A voice sounds through the air, causing the three soldiers to pull their rifles from their backs.  
"What the hell was that?" Hope whispers.  
"My name is CONCAF, the AI of this program. How may I assist you?" The voice echoes through the air again.  
"An AI? Since when did Atlas start using AI's?" Kelley asks to no one in particular.  
"Two years ago when the Atlas program created the first one and used it as a commanding unit", CONCAF replies.  
"That is not good, that is not good at all", Hope whispers.  
"How can we get this data?" Tobin finally asks the AI.  
"Please specify"  
"The data streaming right here in front of us, in the middle of the air"  
"How did you get access to this data?"  
"I pressed a stupid red button under one of data screens. How can I download it to my software and destroy it here?" Tobin grows agitated.  
"One moment please", silence, "Data streaming in process. Seven minutes remaining. Self destruct will take place in one hour"  
"Well that was easy", Kelley finally relaxes and places her gun back on her suit.  
"Hate to be a party pooper here guys, but there's four enemies headed towards the base, and fast", Ashlyn's voice cracks through Tobin's helmet.  
"Atlas?"  
"No, definitely scavengers or another rebel group. The cameras around the area are showing four females, one of them looks really young. I wouldn't try to kill them"  
"How long until they're on the outer perimeter?"  
"Two minutes tops"  
"Dammit", Tobin runs a hand over her smooth helmet, "The data streaming has six minutes left"  
"Looks like you're gonna have to fight then"  
"CONCAF, can you hide the data projection and continue streaming while we look around?"  
"Of course, moving projection now"  
The room grows dark as the data flashes away, but a glowing from Tobin's Exo Suit tells her the data is still streaming.  
"We can go ahead and set up behind those crates and take them out quickly or we can take stealth positions and take them out one by one", Tobin whispers to her teammates.  
"Why don't we try to take them in?" Kelley asks.  
"What if they're Atlas spies? They could have just sent them out here to trick us just so they can get into our base", Hope snarls back.  
"Ash said they weren't Atlas, the cameras around the area prove it. I say taking them in is a good idea, the more people we have the better we'll get"  
"Fine, but if this goes to shit I'm blaming you two"

////

"Come on Mal we're almost there"  
"You said that ten minutes ago Alex, when are we actually gonna be there?"  
"Just quit complaining and keep running, I promise you we're almost there", Alex picks up her pace a little, which seems impossible since her group has been running for the past hour now. Their trucks broke down outside the San Diego city border, and now they were on foot. She knows she saw a building on the other side of the bridge, but getting there without someone complaining seemed pretty unlikely. Her team trusted her though, so they started running on the highway a couple miles back. Lucky for them, the building was now in sight and they just had to climb over a fence to get inside.  
"Thank god", Christen bends over her knees to catch her breath as the group comes to a stop.  
"Mal, you go first", Alex brings her hands down so Mal can jump over.  
"Make Abby go first, I need to catch my breath", Mal bends down next to Christen as Abby walks past her and jumps over the fence. 

When all four of them are over the fence, they pull their rifles out and start searching the area. Abby manages to find ammo and parts under the rubble near the building, but it's not enough for the long journey Alex has planned. 

They stop just at the edge of the destroyed building, Alex scans her eyes over the many outlet buildings on the outside, managing to find a good vantage point from the one in the middle. When the team reaches the top they can see the water lapping onto the shore. 

"What do you think the building used to be?" Mallory cuts the silence.  
Alex continues looking around until her eyes land on a crest at the entrance door, "Atlas"

She jumps down quickly, running to the entrance door and kicking it in.  
"Alex what the hell are you doing?" Abby yells back at her.  
"Just follow me and stay close"  
"This could be a trap for all we know", Christen manages to catch up to Alex and pulls her back behind some crates.  
"We just need to find some supplies and leave, if this is a trap we'll deal with it but so far there's been nothing to tell us that it is"  
The other three girls are quiet, so Alex nods and continues walking into the large circular room. To the right of the room is another door that leads outside, and another one straight ahead. The room is trashed with rubble and broken computers, only one console seems to be working but the screen is cracked beyond repair.  
"Hey I found some first aid over here", Alex heard Mallory yell from another room.  
Her eyes travel up to the roof of the building, scanning over all the possible places a camera could be. The roof has tons of holes but the light barely travels into the dark room.  
"Am I the only one that feels like we're being watched?" Abby asks the group.  
"You say that everywhere we go", Christen snarls and pushes a piece of rubble off of a pile.  
"Christen", Alex warns but a large crash from a different room stops her.  
"What was that?"  
"Where's Mallory?" The three pull their rifles out and start walking towards the room Mallory was in.  
The room is just more rubble and more broken consoles, but Mallory is no where in sight. Alex feels like she's being watched also, which isn't helping her anxiety about Mal.  
"Mallory?" Alex whispers.  
As soon as she takes another step a bullet flies past her and the three women drop to the floor and crawl behind piles of rubble.  
"Atlas!", Abby yells and jumps up to start shooting.  
"Why does everyone think we're god damn Atlas?" Alex hears a voice say from the other side of the room.  
She still can't see where Mallory is, if she's even on the other side of the room. Alex and Christen set up their rifles and start shooting also, catching glimpses of armor running around behind the rubble. Alex waits until she gets another glimpse and pulls her trigger, but she doesn't hit anything. Bullets continue flying everywhere, Alex is sure she's gonna have some hearing damage after this little battle, if she lives. 

"Cover me, I'm gonna reload and move farther up", Alex whispers to Christen.  
Christen nods so she reloads and takes a deep breath before springing out of cover and closer to her new enemies. Someone comes out of the cover in front of Alex and she's about to pull the trigger but she looks at their face and she can't shoot. The girl in front of her is gorgeous beyond belief, long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, perfectly chiseled jawline, glowing brown eyes, and lips that Alex probably wouldn't mind being on her own.  
'Focus Morgan!'  
Alex quickly shakes her head and pulls her rifle up to shoot but the girl already has hers up.  
"Wait!" She yells.  
The room grows silent as bullets stop flying.  
"Where is my sister", Alex growls behind clenched teeth.  
"We didn't hurt her, I promise. We just want to talk", Alex laughs coldly at the girls request.  
"Give me Mallory and maybe we will"  
"Kelley", she yells behind her without taking her eyes off of Alex.  
Alex watches another girl come out of cover with Mallory next to her.  
"Alex, it's okay. They're Sentinels, they can help us", Mallory jogs up next to Alex, pushing down on her rifle until it's no longer pointing at the other soldier.  
"I don't care who they are Mal, we're fine on our own"  
"But they can protect us from Atlas, you know how much other rebel groups talk about them"  
"Yeah and they talked about Atlas too and you see how that went", Alex snaps, pulling her rifle back up to aim at the girl.  
"Alex", Mallory steps in front of the barrel of Alex's gun, "Sentinel isn't like Atlas and you know it"

It was true. Ever since they escaped Atlas they'd heard nothing but good things about Sentinel. Other rebel groups lost members to them because of how good their military program was rumored to be, but people talked about Atlas the same way. Alex took a look at the girl behind Mal, seeing nothing but sincereness behind her eyes. Her eyes traveled to the other two girls, the tinier one had slight puppy eyes, but the taller one was glaring at Alex with her eyebrow raised. 

Alex looked back to the girl behind Mal, who she seemed drawn to, and lowered her gun once more, "Fine, what's this deal of yours?"  
"Well we're not exactly supplied with the information to uh, keep you safe per say but the people back at our base can fill you in on all of it"  
Alex scoffs, "So you want us to go to your base so you can fill us in"  
"If you think we're gonna do anything to hurt you-", the shorter girl in the back starts but Alex just laughs.  
"Oh I do"  
"Tell you what, you come with us and I can promise we won't hurt you. If you don't believe us we'll lock up all of our weapons. After you go through our interview process and hear our deal and you still don't trust us, you can pack your bags up again and head out", jawline girl, who Alex has now named, explains. 

Alex considers the possibilities. They were pretty nice, considering they were just shooting at each other a couple minutes ago. Mallory was giving Alex her puppy eyes, which just made Alex cave even more. 

"Fine", Mallory cheers up but Alex cuts her off, "But if I get the slightest feeling that you're tricking us we're leaving"  
"You got it", jawline smiles largely.  
"Shouldn't we get going-"  
"Warning. Tsunami approaching. Move to higher ground", a robotic voice echoes through the room. 

Alex and her team pull their guns put, but jawline girl and her team stay still with wide eyes. 

"Shit"  
"What the hell is that?" Christen asks.  
"CONCAF, the AI in this station", the tall girl answers.  
"It still works?"  
"Apparently so"

////

"Uh Tobin, you might wanna hurry to the chopper. Those waves are rolling fast and this platform is only a couple yards off the ground", Ashlyn's voice cracks through Tobin's ear piece.  
"We need to get going, follow us", she takes off down the hall and through a set of double doors.

A window near the exit shows Tobin how close the waves are so she picks up her pace and takes a sharp left in the cylinder room. The ceiling becomes low again, water is starting to trickle inside the building by the exit. All of the girls feet echo through the building, making Tobin run even faster as waves start lapping at her feet. 

"Ashlyn open the doors!" Tobin yells as the group finally gets out of the building. 

They travel up the hill a bit before swinging around another smaller building and heading down towards the chopper. The doors begin opening as the chopper slowly lifts off the ground. The waves have reached the beach on the lower ground, lapping up intensely against the sides of the buildings. Tobin reaches the chopper and jumps in quickly, followed by Kelley and Mallory. 

"Start lifting Ash", Tobin yells through the small door to the cockpit, "Hope lets go!"

Hope quickly jumps up and grabs onto the ledge of the chopper, Kelley pulling her up as Tobin and Mallory help the other girls up. The older girl almost misses the edge of the chopper but Tobin helps pull her up. Alex and the other girl are still running towards the chopper, the waves now crashing against their ankles. The darker haired girl reaches the chopper first, she has to jump directly up to catch Mallorys grip and Tobin doesn't think Alex is going to make it if she doesn't hurry. Alex seems to pick up her speed and jumps to grab the ledge, but Tobin can tell she's off by a couple inches. Tobin quickly slides across the metal floor and reaches out to Alex as she realizes she missed the ledge. When the two girls grab onto each other Alex's legs are hanging off the ground but the waves are crashing against her. Tobin uses all of her strength to pull Alex up, almost losing her grip but quickly recovering. By the time the two collapse on the floor the choppers doors are closing and they're flying off to the base. 

"Thanks", Alex huffs out, causing Tobin to smile.


	2. FIFA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm gonna try to do updates every Tuesday and Friday?? I have the first four chapters done but I'm pretty busy with school and soccer so I'll do my best to update to the schedule. 
> 
> Since I'm not doing this on a computer the editor doesn't register my tabs for paragraph breaks so I'll try to figure that out. I promise I don't actually write in huge paragraphs.
> 
> Anyways, here's the second chapter for ya! Hope you enjoy it, leave some comments on how you feel. 
> 
> Hit me up ; becauseizzy.tumblr.com

"So, what's your name?" Kelley starts.  
Alex rolls her eyes, "Seriously? I have to go through this again?"  
"It's just protocol", Tobin chimes in calmly.  
"Fine, Alex Morgan"  
"Who are your team members?"  
"Abby Wambach, Mallory Pugh, and Christen Press"  
"Any deceased?"  
"Kelley", Hope and Tobin whisper sharply, they hadn't expected for Kelley to ask that.  
"It's fine", Alex smiles gently at Tobin and Hope, "My boyfriend Servando was shot and killed last year"  
Kelley goes pale and Hope sinks farther into her chair, "Sorry for your loss"  
"Shit happens during war", Alex whispers, "Am I done yet?"  
"Uh, almost just let me-", Kelley scrambles with her papers a bit, "So it says here that you and your team took three vehicles from Atlas; a stolen U-Haul that you managed to make into a makeshift camper, a city transportation bus that you did the same thing with, and a heavy duty F-250 truck. Is that correct?"  
"Yes"  
"It also says that you had a traveling journal with dates and significant data. Is that correct?"  
"Yes, but as a side note I don't appreciate you going through my things without my permission"  
"Right, sorry about that", Kelley looks at Tobin and she knows she's about to break the deal to them, "So you've survived this entire war alongside Atlas, managed to escape from their company and stayed on the road for two years without getting caught by them or shot down by other rebels. Quite remarkable if you ask me, so uh-"  
"Kelley are you sure we wanna do this?" Hope cuts in suddenly.  
Tobin mentally palms herself as they go back and forth, "Uh yeah, Carli's orders and it was our idea"  
"What are you talking about?" Alex asks and the two of them go quiet once again.  
"Well what we're trying to ask you is-"  
"Kelley we haven't even asked her yet"  
"Yeah but I was about to before you cut in"  
"Really? You're gonna blame me?"  
"I'm not blaming you I'm just saying-"  
"Our superiors started talking and they want you to join the company as military", Tobin cuts them both off and stares directly at Alex.  
Her expression is confusing, at first she shows nothing but then she goes from confusion to disbelief, "Military?"  
"Yes, to be a part of our intelligence also. You've proven yourself strong on the fighting side, and your files say you're ex-militants"  
Alex seems to get angry and now Tobin is scared she's said the wrong thing, "This is ridiculous, you didn't say anything about joining your military. You think you aren't like Atlas at all but you are, we don't need your help. We survived two years and we can survive more being on our own"  
"We are nothing like Atlas", Kelley snaps.  
"Yeah that's what they told us before they tried to use us for experiments and bait"  
"Sentinels don't do experiments or use bait, we survive and we fight back"  
"And how am I supposed to trust you with that when we couldn't trust Atlas?"  
"Because we're not Atlas", this was going downhill very fast and Kelley was getting angry.  
"Will you at least listen to the offer we're giving you? You said you'd consider back at the Atlas base", Tobin tries to chime in and puts a hand on Kelleys arm.  
Alex seems to consider as she settles back in her seat, "Well, you did drag me all the way out here so why not?"  
"Thank you", Tobin nods to Kelley and her tension settles a little, "You and your team would be put through a small training course to see where you would be useful. We would try to keep you together, but if someone has more skills in a different area we split you up and put you at different tasks. You'll be given your own living quarters, you don't even have to eat with the rest of us in the cafeteria if you don't want to. Your privacy and your rights will not be ignored, and we'll try to give you the best we have while you're here with us. If you decide you want to leave, you can pack your stuff and go. But if we find out you've been spying or anything of that sort we will be forced to detain or kill you. We could use people like you Alex, it's just a matter of you wanting to fight back against Atlas and making this world better again"  
"And what makes you think I'm willing to risk the safety and lives of my team?"  
"Well, you wouldn't have come here with us in the first place. Obviously some part of you wants to join us. Do correct me if I'm wrong though"

Alex is silent, but Tobin understands. Atlas aren't the best people ever, and she can't imagine what they tried to do to Alex and her friends. But the threat of Alex being a spy or a double agent is still out there, the vote to take them in was only won by two. Tobin felt like she could trust Alex, but she had to gain the trust of everyone else before she was going to be considered a true Sentinel. 

"Can I talk to my people about it?"  
Tobin smiles at her success, "Of course" 

////

They took the deal and Tobin is praised for it. The three girls meet the rest of Alex's team, finding out that Mallory was only 13 when the war started. They fled to Atlas since it was the only thing they knew about until they learned necessary skills to leave. Abby, Christen, and Alex were ex-military which explained why they knew so much about surviving. 

"Sentinel is a storage unit facility?" Alex asks and pulls Tobin's attention.  
"Sentinel has different branches and squads, this here is FIFA", Tobin smiles at the name.  
"FIFA? As in the soccer FIFA?"  
"Yeah, most of us played for soccer teams before the war and so we decided to call it that in honor of the older times"  
"That's weird, my team played soccer too"  
"Funny how the world works huh?" Tobin smiles again and looks at Alex in the passenger seat.  
Her pale blue eyes are trained ahead at the opening gate, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.  
"You'll fit right in, don't worry"  
"It's not fitting in I'm worried about", Alex mumbles.  
Tobin is about to ask what Alex means but a guard waves for the Jeep to pull into the gate. Tobin weaves around the many blocks of storage units until she's at the center block where Kelley and Hope are already waiting for them at the entrance.

////

Alex is skeptical about the storage unit kind of facility, it doesn't seem very stable or protective but obviously Sentinel knows what it's doing. 

She's skeptical about the whole thing really. It's probably just her mistrust of people that keeps clouding her judgement. She feels like she can trust Tobin for some reason, but she's only one person amongst the entire Sentinel company. Besides, even if she is only one person she's not bad eye candy to Alex. 

"Welcome to FIFA, Tobin will be showing you around since we already took your team on a tour. If you get done in enough time and Tobin doesn't talk as much as she can, you can meet us at the cafeteria for dinner", Kelley says as soon as Alex steps out of the jeep.  
She's standing at the top of a ramp where a set of doors stand. Tobin takes Alex through them and, yeah, Alex is blown away. The entrance is small but once she looks down the halls it seems like the building is endless. The doors from the storage units are still there but every single one is painted differently, the ceilings are high and the halls are wide, the floor is polished wood, and the lights are actually bright. A large elevator stands in front of the entrance door, but Alex can still see a set of metal stairs going up to the next level.  
"So this block is the U block, most of the military personnel live here. The first two floors are mostly communications, armory, infirmary, labs, control rooms, data rooms, I could go on and on but that sounds boring so I'll just take you to the third and fourth floors", Alex listens to Tobin carefully, noticing her slightly lazy tone as she walks up to the elevator, "So usually if the number of the unit is smaller the unit is bigger, we have a bunch of different ones for you to choose from since we don't have many people on the fourth floor"  
"How come?" Alex asks as they step into the elevator.  
"Most of them live on the third floor or in other blocks with their families. Sentinel has a fairly large military program, but Atlas is fighting against us pretty hard and there's only so much the training program can prepare us for"  
"I can tell you some things about Atlas, if it'll help"  
"That'd be great", Alex doesn't think she's ever seen a smile so big on anyone before, especially during the war. Tobin is looking at her intensely, her eyes flickering down once and Alex realizes how close she is to the other girl. She can feel her heart beat pick up a little, but it's short lived as the elevator stops. 

////

Tobin definitely felt something in the elevator with Alex. Even as she's walking down the halls with her she can feel it.  
"So these are some of the bigger unit we have, you can take whichever one you want and paint it like you saw on the other ones"  
"Which ones did my team take?"  
"Abby took twenty, Mallory took twelve, and Christen took twenty three. They all kind of lit up when they found out those numbers were open", Tobin was extremely confused by it too.  
"Yeah, those were our soccer numbers", Alex laughs, sending butterflies through Tobin's stomach.  
"Oh god I should've known, we do that too. What was your number?"  
"Thirteen", Tobin can see Alex smile a little.  
"Oh lucky you, we've got that one open too"  
Alex seems to cheer up as the numbers on the doors get closer to the teens. 

Soon the girls find themselves in front of a large door with thirteen on it. Tobin presses on the panels next to the door and a screen illuminates in front of her.  
"You can put a code on the door if you'd like, all of your stuff is locked in the armory so I can take you there if you want but you're welcome to wander around and find it yourself", Tobin says as she slowly backs away from the door.  
"Yeah thanks, I'll just find my people and get the stuff myself"  
"No problem, I'll see you later", as quickly as she can Tobin turns and starts walking down the hall to her unit, but she stops and turns around to look at Alex, "Hey, Alex?"  
"Yeah?" The blue eyed girl turns to look at Tobin with a smile that sends butterflies through her stomach.  
"I'm glad you decided to join us", Tobin says sincerely.  
Alex doesn't reply for a moment but she smiles even wider, "Me too"  
Satisfied, Tobin nods and leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I feel like this is such a short chapter I feel bad. I promise the next one will be longer, just wanted to get a little Talex in. 
> 
> What are we thinking?


	3. First Order Of Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I already had this chapter written like last week and I don't think I can wait another three days to post it, so surprise! 
> 
> Thank you guys so much for the comments and the kudos, this is only my first real fi and you all have been so kind to me. So thank you, and enjoy this surprise update!
> 
> Hit me up; becauseizzy.tumbr.com  
> (I also have a Tobin fan account on ig @ holy.heath , you can follow and hit me up on my personal too if you want @ stoic.izzy)

Alex sighs as she places the last box of her stuff onto the floor of her new room. It was a good sized room with a mirror, two dressers, a full sized bed, and a tall safe in the corner. Unlike regular storage units, these didn't have mesh tops and the wall went all the way up to the ceiling. Mallory and Alex had even checked the sound through the walls, nothing could be heard no matter how loud they yelled. Alex and her team spent a good three hours carrying their stuff back and forth to their units, but had no luck in finding their weapons and technology. Alex was going to have to ask Tobin about that later.

"So", Mallory's voice sounded from behind Alex, causing her to jump slightly.  
"Jesus Pugh, you scared me", Mal just laughs, "What do you want?"  
"Tobin huh?" Her eyebrows wiggle up and down at Alex.  
"Mal-"  
"Oh don't you Mal me. You stopped shooting at them the second she popped her head out of cover. And wasn't she the one that convinced you to listen to their offer? You never listen to people besides us, and I totally saw the way you looked at her before she left"  
"I thought you were with Kelley", Alex practically yells.  
"They assigned me to security for now, saw you two on the cameras", Mallory smirks and walks into her unit, leaving Alex stunned. 

She totally wasn't looking at her a certain way, and she totally listens to other people. She was just hard headed and skeptical about Sentinel, but now they had shelter and a probably endless amount of food without the threat of Atlas. 

Truth is, they were very close to getting caught by them again. They stumbled upon the base in San Francisco by accident, they needed to find somewhere secluded to stay while the Atlas party passed by. Alex was kind of glad Sentinel found them now, besides being shot at a few times they had been nothing but nice and understanding. Unlike Atlas who practically forced them to stay at their company. But it could all be an act, and that's what scared Alex the most. 

She shook the uneasy feeling off as she walked down the hall to the right to try and find Tobin. She didn't even realize she was walking the wrong way when Kelley came stumbling out of unit five on the corner. 

"Oh, hey Alex", Alex could tell that Kelleys smile was strained, they hadn't exactly been friendly to each other since their argument.  
"Hey I'm kind of lost, can you show me where Tobin is?"  
"Sure", Kelley practically runs down the hall where Alex came from, probably trying to avoid a conversation.  
But Alex was determined to make things not so awkward between the two, "Wait Kelley slow down"  
"Sorry you kind of caught me at a bad time"  
"Well you could have just told me that"  
"Then I would have seemed like I was brushing you off"  
Kelley took a sharp right, almost leaving Alex behind.  
"Kelley just wait", when Alex turned the corner Kelley was standing there with her arms crossed, "Listen, I know I was kind of rude during the interview and I just wanted to apologize. We have to work together now and I don't want things to be tense alright?"  
Kelley is quiet for a second but she puts her hand out to Alex, "Sorry I've been avoiding you, I kinda just thought you didn't like me at all"  
"Don't apologize, you were just standing up for your company", Alex shakes Kelleys hand and smiles.  
"Apology accepted then. Just don't hurt Tobin okay?" And with that she walks past Alex and back around the corner.  
Alex is confused once again, but also a little embarrassed that two people have now noticed her small infatuation with Tobin.  
"Alex?"  
'Speak of the devil', Alex thinks as she turns around to see Tobin leaning against the wall.  
"Hey, I was looking for you"  
"You look like a lost puppy", Tobin laughs but motions for Alex to follow her. 

Hesitantly Alex follows her into unit, which has the number seventeen fading on the wall next to it. 

Tobin is seated in a rolley chair next to a wooden desk with a computer and a stereo. The full sized bed is pushed into the right corner, next to that is a small table and a large wardrobe. The floor is soft carpet, a couple framed pictures and posters are placed around the walls, including a large surfboard above the desk. A chest stands at the foot of the bed with stickers placed all over it. Alex also notices the jersey hanging above the bed with the number seventeen on it. 

When Alex looks back at Tobin she has an eyebrow raised, "Sorry what?"  
"I asked what you needed", she says with a laugh, Alex could listen to that laugh all day.  
"Oh right. I just wanted to know where all of our weapons and stuff were. They weren't with the rest of our stuff so", Alex drawls out.  
"Oh yeah I totally forgot about that. Carli usually makes us lock the larger stuff up in the armory so we can just grab it with our Exo suits, but I kept a couple of your pistols and knives", Tobin gets up out of the chair and walks over to the wardrobe. She shifts a few things around before she carries out a metal box.  
"And you were planning on keeping these until I came to ask for them?" Alex asks jokingly as she takes the box.  
Tobin just grins and scratches the back of her neck, "Sorry I totally forgot"  
"Well thanks for keeping them anyways"  
"Yeah no problem", both of the girls stand there silently for a moment. 

They look at each other intensely, Alex unconsciously pulling at her bottom lip as she stares into Tobin's brown eyes. Neither of them notice Kelley and Hope standing behind them until they clear their throats, causing Alex to almost drop the box. 

"Sorry to interrupt but Carli wants everyone in the briefing room", Hope says and drags Kelley with her down the hall.  
"That's never good, come on we should hurry", Tobin grabs her combat boots and pulls Alex out of the unit with her. 

////

"It's been a long day for everyone, especially for our new recruits but we've had a bit of an emergency situation thrown at us. Ashlyn and Ali went out on a supply run this morning and we haven't heard anything back from them. Sadly, we've had reports of Atlas in the area, so that means they're getting bolder with taking and killing our people. We need a volunteer team to go out and find them to make sure they're okay. You can make this a recon mission or you can make it a forward attack mission. I know Ash and Ali are important to all of us so I would appreciate it if we got this done as soon as possible", Carli explains to everyone in the room.  
"I'll go", Tobin stands as soon as Carli finishes.  
"Us too", Hope and Kelley also stand.  
"I'm in", another girl stands up, Sydney, Alex thinks. 

The room is silent for a moment, giving Alex a second to look around the room. There's about 25 women in the room, not including Alex and her team. Everyone seems to be in their own little world or very pale looking. 

"Count me in", Alex stands up and the room somehow gets even quieter. 

She's sitting at the back of the room so everyone shifts in their seat to look her. Alex feels Christen and Abby stand up also, but she shakes her head as Mallory starts to stand up. She knows Mallory is too young for this, and now that they work for Sentinel the missions they go on will get serious. It's not that she wants to restrict the teenager, she just doesn't want to watch her little sister get killed. 

"Are you sure?" Carli asks the group.  
"We may have only been here for a day or so but now that we are, we're committed to the company and the missions. Ashlyn and Ali obviously have a large significance here, and going on this mission with you will give us a chance to prove our worth to you", Abby speaks for the three girls.  
"We want you to trust us, and we want to trust you. This is a perfect opportunity", Christen says also.  
"What about Mallory?"  
Alex tenses, "She's only seventeen. If anything happened to her I would feel responsible and I would never forgive myself. She's like my little sister, I don't want her getting hurt now that these missions are serious"  
"It's cool, I don't mind staying back at all", Mallory finally speaks up.  
Carli seems satisfied so she turns back to everyone else, "Tobin will be the captain of this mission. I trust you will listen to her and take everything she has to say to heart. Good luck, please don't die, and get our girls back"

////

Tobin practically marches out of the briefing room with the team behind her as they make their way to the armory. She switches her brain to her military mode, not allowing herself to think about Alex, who just so happens to be going on this mission too. Hope and Kelley follow swiftly behind her. Having done this hundreds of times, the three of them, along with Sydney, are suited up and loaded in record time. Alex and Christen have trouble with their suits, which Tobin is really going to have to talk to them about, but Abby gets the hang of it and is finished next. 

"This button shifts your helmet so it becomes full headed, your earpiece is right here, and your Exo Ability is triggered by this button right here", Tobin listens to Kelley as she pulls the helmet over Alex's head.  
She notices Alex trembling under her hand, "Are you nervous?"  
"Yeah", even though Tobin can only see her eyes Alex seems embarrassed.  
"You'll be fine, just stay by my side"  
Alex nods but Tobin can still sense the fear coming from her.  
"We're ready Tobin", Sydney whispers.  
"Alright, let's get this show on the road. Hope you're flying, Kelley and Sydney will take the guns"  
"You got it", Hope nods.  
"What about us?" Alex motions to Abby and Christen.  
"I'll be briefing you on what we're going to do. This mission is extremely important and it has to be perfect"  
"Understood", Abby says as she pulls the door open for everyone, "Let's go get your people back then"

////

"Ashlyn and Ali are smart, so they're either hiding somewhere in the building or in the area. If they're not hiding, they're still fighting or dead", Tobin can see Kelley's grip tighten on her gun.  
"So how do we approach the situation?" Abby asks.  
"Atlas is looking closely at the area, so we have to be careful. The facility is huge, three stories of nothing but supplies. It surrounded by a huge fence, left by the industry who was there before. We've been going to this facility for months and nothing like this has happened before", Tobin pulls a datapad from her bag and taps the screen until a hologram comes up, "What we're thinking of doing is landing ontop of the building if we can. If we can't we land just outside of the fence, cut a hole in it and get inside. We're gonna split up and go through the back, get up to all the floors and look for any signs of them. If we don't find any, we'll scout around the area and see if their suits are giving off any signals.  
"How are we splitting up?" Kelley asks as she picks at her suit.  
"Two teams of two, and one team of three. We can split up how ever you want, just as long as we find them and get out alive"  
"Sydney is experienced, so could she just go with us and Hope or Kelley go with Alex?" Abby asks.  
"If you think Hope is gonna leave Kelley's side you are way wrong", Sydney laughs.  
"She's right", Hope's voice cracks through everyones ear piece.  
"Alright how about this, Sydney you go with Alex and Christen, Kelley and Hope will go together, and I'll go with Abby", Tobin suggests.  
"Let me go with you", Alex says quickly before anyone can agree.  
Tobin looks at Alex with a raised eyebrow, but nods her head anyways, "You and I will take the third floor, Hope and Kelley will take the second and you guys can take the first floor"  
"What are we looking for?" Hope asks.  
"Any signs that they've been there. Anything left behind from them would be useful too"  
"And if we don't find them?"  
"We will", Tobin snaps, "We have to"

////

Alex doesn't know why she rushed to be with Tobin, she just thought being away from the tanned soldier wouldn't be good. Thinking about it almost made her anxious, it kind of made her feel sick to the stomach.  
"Just follow my lead and you'll be okay. This may be your first serious mission but I have faith in you, we're gonna get out okay", Tobin had moved closer to Alex after going over the plan so they could talk.  
Alex smirks and looks down at her lap, "Pinky promise?"  
She looks at Tobin, the smile on her lips gives her butterflies, "Pinky promise"  
Tobin holds up her pinky to Alex, which she takes in her own and smiles even larger.  
"Alright love birds, chill out we're almost there", Sydney's voice causes Tobin and Alex to jump apart.

Alex and Tobin both blush, moving to other sides of the heli and looking out. Being on the ground all the time didn't let Alex see what had really happened to the world. She watches the land fly by, slowly turning from lush woods to bare land. There were hundreds of craters in the ground, all filled with ash and rubble. It sends an uneasy feeling through Alex, she had no idea it had gotten this bad over the past few years. She wished this had never happened to the world, things would be fine if people would just get along, but here she is, flying in an army helicopter getting ready to go into a possible war zone. 

Alex was terrified to say the least, she didn't really do anything in the army before the war started, and she just went through hundreds of tests and trials with Atlas that she didn't even know the reason for. And she missed Servando. It's been a year since he was shot, but it still hurt to think about it. But Tobin seemed to make things better for her. She had a certain personality that brightened a room when she walked in. It also made Alex a little nervous, yeah they were fighting a war and she was practically married to Serv before he died but Tobin felt like safety to Alex. 

"We're coming up to the building, the roof is clear so we won't have to go through the fence", Hope's voice pulls Alex from her thoughts, and she sees the terrain go back to woods.  
"Alright, stick to the plan unless something goes wrong. Keep your radio channel open at all times, we'll look inside the building for half an hour and meet up on the roof if we don't find anything, understood?"  
Many forms of confirmation make its way to Tobin, and Alex has to keep herself from smiling. But her slight happiness is short lived as she feels the helicopter land on the building, the doors opening seconds later.  
"Let's go get our girls", Kelley yells.


	4. The Past Isn't Just The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooh my gosh I am so sorry I didn't update Tuesday, I had a horrid case of writers block on Monday and I couldn't get like two words down. So here's a super long chapter to make up for it! I was gonna split this into two, but the other chapters are already pretty short and I felt bad. 
> 
> So this chapter is a bit of a roller coaster, just as a warning there's some graphic depictions of blood and some triggering mentioned too sooo, yeah.
> 
> Also, I apologize for any mistakes. I went to the eye doctor and got my eyes dilated so I'm having some trouble seeing and focusing on anything besides my headache.

The girls made their way to their respective levels, deciding to enter through the back stairways at the same time. Tobin and Alex swiftly run down the stairs from the roof to the third level. Hope and Kelley run past them down the stairs, followed closey by Christen, Abby, and Sydney.  
"Radio if you guys need anything!" Tobin yells down the stairwell, receiving echoes back from her teammates.  
Tobin looks at Alex, smiling softly when the blue eyed soldier looks back at her, "Are you ready?"  
Alex lets out a sigh and nods, pulling the pistol from her side and taking the left side of the doors. The stairwell is mostly stone, it seems to have worn down more since the last time Tobin was here, but she doesn't want to think about that.  
"Alright, you all have the go ahead to proceed, remember to meet back at the heli in thirty minutes", Tobin says into her radio, nodding at Alex and pushing the large metal doors open. It takes her a moment to adjust to the dark room, but when she does her jaw drops.  
"Holy shit"  
"Holy shit too"  
"What the hell happened here?"  
Tobin's eyes graze over the completely trashed room, she listens to her team on the radio who must be seeing similar things. She pulls her helmet off of her head, the smell of fire and fired rounds filling her nose. She can see holes from bullets in the walls and torn boxes, but what catches her eye is the black substance sticking to the high ceilings.  
"What the hell is that?" Alex says as she looks up also.  
"I have no idea", Tobin whispers.  
She starts walking towards the rows of shelves in the middle of the room, but a hand on her chest stops her.  
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Alex asks with her hand still on Tobin.  
"It's the only way to know if Ashlyn and Ali are still alive"  
"From the looks of it I don't think they are", Hope's voice startles Tobin.  
"Shut it Solo, you're assuming", Tobin snarls into her headset, quickly walking past Alex.  
She hears Alex sigh behind her, but the sound of foot steps follow Tobin. She walks down the wide hall into the open room, carefully raking her eyes over the shelves of destroyed supplies. She's never seen the building this trashed before, let alone so damaged in places she didn't think could be damaged. The beams in the ceilings looks dangerously loose, some even hanging all the way off from other beams and others have fallen ontop of the shelves. There's bullet backfire all over the walls, bullets and bullet holes are haphazardly placed in the thin walls at the front of the room and in the supplies. The black substance on the ceiling seems to be dripping down, forming puddles in the middle of the aisles. 

Tobin and Alex make their way around the room, managing to scavenge a few supplies but it's not much. It's not until they're at the front of the room that they find something useful. But Tobin has to look away when they round the corner. 

There's an open space at the front of the building, blown away by what looks like shrapnel grenades. At the center of the room there's a flag covered and dripping in blood, but Tobin can still see the emblem under the thick fluid. 

"Atlas", Alex manages to gasp out.

////

Alex couldn't do anything but gape at the flag, she knew it meant something bad but she didn't know how bad. The amount of blood dripping from the flag was too much for someone to have survived, it made her stomach churn just thinking about it. 

"Tobin", Alex whispers as she swallow past the lump in her throat, "Tobin what does this mean?"  
She hears Tobin gasp for air, still unable to take her eyes off the flag, "It means Ashlyn and Ali are dead"

Alex can feel her stomach drop, she was hoping this situation wasn't going to come to this. God, she hoped it wasn't going to come to this. She finally looks away from the flag, turning towards Tobin but her heart just breaks more. Tobin is kneeling on the floor, her fists curled up. She's slightly rocking back and forth, Alex swears she can hear her whimpering. 

"Tobin", Alex whispers but her captain stays silent, "Tobin come on we have to go find them"  
"No, no, they're gone. There's no finding them now", Tobin whimpers.  
"You don't know that, come on we have to go find them", Alex tries to lift Tobin up, but the tan soldier pushes her onto the floor and stands up.  
"Do you not understand me, Alex? They're gone, they're dead, there's no getting them back! Atlas killed them and smeared their fucking blood all over their flag as revenge! They're dead, there's no going out to find them or getting them back! God they're probably being thrown out into the middle of nowhere as we speak!"  
Alex is stunned, she's never seen Tobin get this emotional before, let alone talk above an inside voice. She stays on the ground where she fell, gaping at the crying soldier in front of her.  
"Tobin you don't know if they're dead or not, you haven't seen their bodies or-", Alex stands and tries to reason with Tobin but is cut off.  
"Is this not enough proof to you?" Tobin screams as she grabs the flag from where it stands, getting blood all over her hands and her suit, "Is their blood not proof enough? Nobody survives from bleeding this much Alex!"  
Alex watches in horror as Tobin flails around, blood finds it's way onto her face and her hair. She continues ranting, and Alex doesn't know what to do besides watch. She can tell Tobin is slowly losing her grasp on reality, so she rushes to get up and get the soldiers attention.  
"Tobin! Tobin listen to me it's gonna be okay!" Alex doesn't care that she's getting blood all over her.  
"No! No it's not gonna be okay, my best friend is dead!"  
"You don't know that Tobin! You haven't seen their bodies, you don't even know if this is their blood!"  
Tobin's sobs stop at Alex's words, staring at the blue eyed soldier with tears still in her eyes. Alex frowns at the sight in front of her, there's blood smeared all over Tobin's face and arms, tears still threatening to break out of her eyes. Alex smiles faintly, softly catching a stray tear falling with her thumb.  
"It's gonna be okay", Alex pulls Tobin towards her, snaking her arms around her shoulders. Tobin sobs into Alex's chest, holding tightly onto her waist as she probably wouldn't be able to stand on her own. She doesn't even care that she's breaking down in front of Alex, she doesn't really care about anything right now. She just wished she had said goodbye to Ashlyn like she usually did. Being in the military meant taking risks but Ashlyn was Tobin's best friend besides Kelley, and she wasn't ready to say goodbye to her. 

"They're dead", Tobin whispers to herself mostly, but Alex still hears her and pulls her closer, if that's even possible.  
"No, they're not. We just found them passed out on the first floor in a closet. They're injured pretty bad, Ash has a huge cut on her side but she's alive", Sydney's voice startles the two soldiers, but Tobin still clings onto Alex's arms.  
Tobin perks up and tightens her grip on Alex's arms, "And Ali?"  
"There's a gash on her forehead, she's probably gonna need stitches. We're gonna get them to the heli while you guys keep looking around"  
"Alright, let us know if either of them wake up or anything"  
"Will do Cap", Sydney gives Tobin a sympathetic smile before turning and walking out of the room. 

Alex finally lets herself breathe, but she's still cautious of how Tobin will react. Suddenly, she starts laughing histarically and Alex is more than confused. 

"I almost lost another best friend", Tobin manages to say as she laughs, letting her head fall onto Alex's shoulder again. 

////

"Woah, what the hell happened to you two?" Kelley asks when she sees Alex and Tobin covered in blood. She walks over to Tobin and notices something different, her eyes blowing wide when she notices the distant look in her. She's leaning all the way on Alex, her feet dragging behind her, she doesn't even notice Kelley standing in front of her. Kelley remembers the last time this happened, and it wasn't good at all.  
"What happened?" She whispers to Alex.  
"I don't know", is all Alex says before carrying Tobin to the helicopter. 

Kelley watches helplessy, not noticing Hope come up next to her as they both watch Alex strap Tobin in.  
"You know this isn't good right?" Hope asks Kelley.  
"Yeah, last time she had that look since-"  
"Yeah, I know"

The two share one last look of understanding, finally making their way onto the helicopter. 

////

The ride back is silent, Abby and Christen had a moment of panic when they saw Alex covered in blood but Alex just shook them off. She was more worried about Tobin, who hadn't said a word yet. Ashlyn and Ali were laid out on the floor across from Kelley and Sydney, occasionally mumbling or stirring around. Alex could tell that Kelley and Hope knew something about Tobin and they weren't telling her, but she wasn't going to ask them about it now, not when Tobin clearly needed her. 

////

When they finally reached FIFA they were bombarded with questions, but everyone eventually backed off since Ashlyn and Ali needed some serious treatment. Alex was just extremely tired, and she needed to get Tobin into some different clothes before anyone started asking more questions. Tobin was still being unresponsive to everything, so Alex was going to have to carry all the way to her unit. Not that Alex minded, she just wished Tobin would say something so she knew that she was okay. 

"I can take care of Tobin if you want me to", Kelley says as she opens the door to the building.  
Alex smiles as much as she can, "It's okay, I got her"

Kelley just nods her head and heads inside with Hope. Alex looks down at Tobin and frowns, she was curled against Alex with her arms wrapped around her neck, still not saying or doing anything. Alex sighs heavily and makes her way to the elevator, nodding to Abby and Christen as they pass by. The door closes and starts lifting, Alex unconciously starts humming and stroking her fingers along Tobin's arm. 

The elevator finally stops on the fourth floor and Alex slowly makes her way to Tobin's unit. She internally cheers when she sees the door doesn't have a code on it and sets Tobin down in her office chair. Alex quickly shuffles around the dresser to find some clothes for Tobin to change into, pulling out a soccer jersey and sweatpants. She throws them over her shoulder and picks Tobin back up, she feels her arms around her neck again and smiles, walking out of the unit and heading to the showers. She walks down the hall in silence, slowly starting to feel the fatigue of carrying Tobin around. She slips into the showers, pulling a stool from the lockers and placing it in front of one of the curtains. She sets Tobin down on the stool and hangs the clothes over the railing. 

"Tobin?" Alex tries to get Tobin to look at her, but fails.  
"Tobin, come on you gotta wash off really quick and then we can get you to bed", Tobin actually blinks as Alex speaks. She waits a second for Tobin to process what she's saying, smiling when Tobin nods slightly.  
"Do you want me to help you?" Tobin nods her head no, "Alright, I'm gonna go to my unit and get some stuff so I can wash off too. I'll be right back, I promise"  
Tobin nods her head again and stands up, throwing Alex a little of guard, but still isn't looking at Alex. She disappears behind the curtain and Alex hears the water turn on, so she smiles and walks back to her unit. 

////

"Alex!" Kelley's voice catches Alex's attention as she's walking into her unit.  
"Hey Kelley", she smiles at the freckled girl.  
"Hey, can I talk to you really quick?"  
"Yeah sure, what's up?" Alex says as she shuffles through her clothes.  
"Look it's not really my place to tell you what happened, but Tobin lost someone really important to her last year and this is how she acted back then. It took a lot of therapy and time to get back to normal, and I'm really worried about her now"  
"So what should I do?" Alex asks.  
"That's the thing. When, uh let's call her L, when L died she went into shock and started flipping out and screaming. It took us an hour to get her to calm down, whereas you took what? Five minutes? Every time she started freaking out it took all of our power to get her to calm down but you touch her once and she's fine", Kelley explains.  
"Are you saying I have some kind of super power?" Alex scoffs.  
"She's saying you're special to Tobin. Extremely so, and this might be easier for her with you here. Just be careful with her, she's got a lot of triggers that I can tell you about but right now you both just need to get some sleep", Hope comes out of nowhere, startling Alex slightly.  
"Right, well I should get back to her. I left her standing in the shower and if she falls I'm gonna be really-"  
"GET OFF OF ME"

Alex stops in her tracks, feeling Hope and Kelley tense behind her too. She knows that was Tobin's scream, but why the hell would she be screaming? She hears Tobin scream again, but it turns into loud sobbing and Alex's body finally turns into protective mode and she sprints down the hall screaming Tobins name. She bursts into the showers, closely followed Hope and Kelley. She's still sobbing loudly, and Alex heart starts racing. 

"Tobin, what's wrong?" Alex pulls back the curtain and her heart breaks. The tan soldier is sitting in the corner of the shower, frantically rubbing at the blood stained on her skin. Alex instantly drops to her knees and grabs Tobin's hands, whispering softly to her. It takes a second, but Tobin eventually stops crying. Alex can't help but think Tobin looks beautiful with the water streaming down on her. She turns around to see Kelley and Hope staring at her wide eyes. 

"See what I mean?" Kelley whispers.  
Alex just nods and turns her attention back to Tobin, who now has her head on her knees, "It's alright guys, I got it from here"  
"Are you sure?" Hope asks.  
"Yeah, I'm just gonna clean her up and get her in bed"  
"Alright, sleep well", the couple says as they walk out of the showers. 

////

"Tobin, can you stand up for me?"  
Alex barely notices, but Tobin nods and slowly gets off the ground. Tobin watches Alex pull the stool into the shower for her and she sits down on it as Alex realizes she's still in her clothes. Tobin watches Alex peel the wet clothes off of her body, throwing them outside the curtain. Tobin's eyes trail over Alex's toned legs and abs, slowly taking her in until she looks up at her face. Alex smiles down at her, pulling her hair out of her ponytail and letting it drape around her shoulders. Tobin doesn't think Alex could get any more beautiful than she is right now, she wishes she could just stand up and kiss her, but her body is tired and she doesn't want to do anything but cry. 

"Alright, let's get you cleaned up", Alex says as she grabs soap and shampoo. Tobin lets herself relax as Alex's hands trail over her body and through her hair, but she doesn't dare open her eyes to see the blood running down her body. It feels like forever, but eventually Alex is done. She steps in front of Tobin and kneels down until she's eye level with her. 

"Close your eyes for me", Tobin obeys and closes her eyes. She hears Alex fumble around with the soap and soon feels Alex's fingers gently gliding over her face. 

She knows she's getting the blood off of her face, but it feels so much more intimate. Alex's hands trail over her cheeks and jawline, then down to her neck and collar bones. Tobin opens her eyes when the soap runs off of her eyes, so she watches Alex. When she's done she let's out a sigh of triumph and smiles at Tobin. Tobin tries to smile back but can't find the energy to so she just stares at Alex. She sees Alex's face fall but she turns around too soon to see any more expression. Tobin looks down at her hands while Alex washes herself, and soon Alex is drying both of them off and handing Tobin clothes to change in to. She looks at Alex and then back at the clothes in her hand. Alex sighs, obviously understanding and motioning for Tobin to lift her arms. 

Tobin suddenly feels conscious about her body and frowns, which Alex notices, "Come on I just washed your entire naked body off and now you're feeling shy?"  
Tobin internally smiles at Alex, slowly lifting her arms. 

////

"Alright, let's get you to bed", Alex says when she finally gets her clothes on. Tobin seems eager for Alex to carry her, and Alex is just glad she's showing a little emotion. 

She carries Tobin out of the showers and down the hall to her unit, taking the long way so she can check up on Kelley and Hope. When she passes by Hope's unit she sees them both in bed asleep and she smiles, closing Hope's door with her foot and continuing down the hall to Tobin's unit. When she get's there she carefully lays Tobin down and lifts the blanket over her. 

"If you need anything just come get me okay?" Alex says, kissing Tobin's forehead unconsciously. She turns to head out but a hand on her wrist stops her. She turns back to Tobin who is looking up at her.  
"Stay with me", Alex's heart breaks as Tobin croaks the words out. But she smile lightly and nods, quickly closing the door and laying down next to Tobin. She tries to give Tobin some space, but she feels an arm wrap around her waist. Alex shifts her arm so that Tobin can use it as a pillow and Tobin does so. 

Alex lays there in silence, feeling Tobin's breathign even out, "Goodnight Tobin"

She's really going to have to figure out her feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, I am so sorry I did that to y'all. Please don't hate me. 
> 
>  
> 
> So who do we think L is??? Happy guessing (;


	5. Let It All Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG PLEASE TELL ME YALL WATCHED THE GAME TODAY CUZ TOBIN GOT THE CAPTAIN ARMBAND!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF HER OH MY GOSH.
> 
> Alright, so for those of you who are up at this hour, here's a quick little chapter in honor of Tobin getting the armband! It's just a short chapter for some info about "L" (;, and more Talex progress.
> 
> Also, if mentionings of blood, death in general, or mentionings of anxiety/panic attacks trigger you , you can just skip the first part of this chapter.
> 
> Enjoy guys!
> 
> Hit me up; becauseizzy.tumblr.com & @ holy.heath on instagram

It feels like she's been running forever, her lungs are burning and she can hear the blood pumping through her ears. She doesn't know how much longer she can take it, but she has to get out before the building collapses. She keeps running, taking sharp turns until she finally reaches a door with an exit sign above it. She pushes the door open and stumbles out, but there's nothing but bright white light past the door. She tries to catch herself with the door frame, but it's too late and she ends up falling into the endless white. She tries to scream but she can't her lungs are too tired from running. 

She falls for what seems like forever, until the white around her twists and changes into a barren desert. She can feel the sun beating down on her, almost instantly feeling beads of sweat drip down her neck and forehead. She spins around, searching the flat land for anything, or anyone. 

"Hello?" Her dry voice calls out, but there's no answer.

She starts walking in the direction of the sun, which seems to be West since it looks like it's setting. She knows she won't be able to handle running, not with her lungs still burning and the sun beating down on her. 

After a while of pointless walking she just gives up and sits down on the hard dirt. She knows it's just a dream but what is it supposed to mean? Why out of all places does she end up in a desert? Last time she was in one was when-

No.

She's not going to think about that. Not here, not ever again.

"What are you doing here?" A voice startles her but she doesn't dare turn around. She knows that voice, she knows she won't be able to handle it if she looks at that face.   
"I could ask you the same thing", she decides to say back.  
The voice laughs the laugh she misses so much, "It's not your time yet, God knows you're too lazy to die right now"  
"Maybe God put me here to see you. I don't understand why though, right now is the worst time to be seeing you"  
She hears a sigh beside her and the crunching of dirt, "Yeah, I saw what happened earlier"  
"So you know you shouldn't be here", she lashes out and looks the opposite direction when she hears the figure sit down next to her.   
"Hey, don't be like that. It took a lot of convincing to come down and visit you"  
"Maybe I don't want to see you", she says through the tightening in her throat. 

It's silent, she's scared that the figure has disappeared beside her but she knows it hasn't. She just wants to get out of here, get out of this dream or whatever this was. She doesn't want to see her, or hear her. She can't deal with it right now. 

"I guess I'll be on my way then", she hears the figure stand up, and it takes all she has not to look up. She lets a couple moments pass by, listening to the crunching of dirt until she can't handle it anymore.   
Tears spill out of her eyes as she scrambles off the ground towards the figure, "Wait!"  
She feels like she's made a grave mistake looking at that face, but she doesn't care once she comes into view. Her curly brown hair is resting on her shoulders, blue eyes vibrant against the plain desert background and her perfect, white teeth are smiling.   
"Hey"  
"I miss you", is all she says as she falls into the arms of her ex best friend.   
Hands trail over her back smoothly, "I know. I miss you too" 

She feels everything inside of her fall apart. She was hoping this wasn't going to happen like the first time, that God would be kind to her and keep her out of this torture. And it really was torture, seeing the vibrant face of her dead best friend, having it feel so real. She misses her so much, and she still blames herself for everything that happened. She wished she had never gotten on that stupid plane, that she had never pulled that lever or given the pilot that gun to protect himself. 

"I'm so sorry, so so sorry", she sobs into her best friends shoulder.   
"Hey, it's okay. Quit blaming yourself", her best friend pulls back and looks her in the eye, "You could have never known her was going to do that. None of this is your fault, it was just bad luck"  
"But it shouldn't have happened to you! You out of all people, the one I needed most! I still can't get the image of you bleeding and dying in my arms at night. You haunt me! My best friend in the entire world haunts me!"  
"Hey, hey, come on", she wipes the tears running down her cheeks, "You have to let go. It's been a year. You got your revenge, he's dead now and you have to accept that I'm gone. I know you won't see me for a long time after this, but try to let go okay? Alex will take care of you, you can take care of you. You're strong and I believe in you, you just have to let go"  
"No", she shakes her head frantically and tightens her grip, "No I can't let you go, I won't let you go"  
"You have to"  
"No!"

A gunshot rings through the air, she watches the smile fade from her best friends eyes, watches the life drain from her gorgeous blue eyes. 

"I love you, stay strong for me", she whispers before dropping to the ground.   
"No! Please no don't leave me!" She drops to the ground with her best friend, scrambling around her body to find the wound and to stop the bleeding. She's getting blood everywhere, she doesn't even know where the blood is coming from but there's so much and she just wants it to stop.   
"Let go", she whispers before she goes still.   
"No, please don't do this", she screams.  
The life is gone from her eyes, she can't feel a heartbeat anymore and the air is silent. Her sobs cease for a moment as she stares at the lifeless body of her best friend. 

She screams out into the silent air, grabbing her shoulders and laying her head on her chest. Her screams fill the air, her sobs threatening to break through them.   
"Cheney!", she screams one last time before everything goes dark. 

////

"Tobin!" Is the first thing she hears when she wakes up.   
A lack of oxygen hits her lungs and she sits up, gasping for air in the pitch dark. Her hands flail around, trying to find the voice. When she feels empty space next to her she starts panicking but a bright light turns on and she sees Alex at the switch. They lock gazes for a moment, and then Alex is in front of with both of her hands on either side of her face.   
"Tobin, Tobin it's me! It's Alex, you're okay it was just a dream", she rasps out to the soldier as she continues panicking and gasping for air.   
"Focus on me Tobin, focus on my voice", Tobin tries her hardest to listen to Alex, but she finds it difficult as she can still see Cheney's face behind her eye lids.   
"Open your eyes, Tobin open your eyes and look at me you're okay", she opens her eyes and stares into those ocean blue eyes and she can feel herself calm down slightly.   
"Alex", Tobin gasps out as her hands fling out and pull the taler girl closer to her, needing to touch her to make sure she's not still dreaming.   
"Yes, yes it's me. Alex, Alex Morgan", Alex shifts on her knees so she's eye level with Tobin.   
"It was just a dream", Tobin repeats from Alex, finally starting to believe it as her hands find their way through the brunette's hair.   
"Just a dream", Alex allows a small smile to find its way on her face as Tobin settles down. She's actually kind of proud that she got Tobin to calm down so easily, and even under the circumstance she's not against how close their bodies are right now.   
Tobin registers it too, it's actually helping her calm down a lot faster. She makes sure her grip on Alex's hair isn't too tight aas she stares into her eyes. 

"You're okay, I promise", Alex whispers to Tobin, sending butterflies through her stomach. 

Tobin lets out a heavy sigh, closing her eyes and leaning her forehead against Alex's. Alex pulls Tobin closer and moves one hand to her neck and one hand to her back, lightly drawing circles across Tobin's skin. It soothes Tobin even more, and she gladly scoots farther off the edge of the bed to be closer to Alex. She can feel the brunette's heart beating, and it's going pretty hard and fast. Tobin doesn't blame her though, if she hadn't just been freaking out her heart would probably be going a thousand miles an hour. 

The two sit there for a while, Alex letting Tobin settle down and Tobin just breathing in Alex.  
"Tobin, we should probably go back to sleep", Alex whispers and Tobin want to disagree just so she can stay close to Alex but she registers how tired she really is and sighs. She leans back and opens her eyes, finding Alex's face only inches from hers. Her eyes dart down to her lips, and then back up to her eyes. There's so many emotions in Alex's eyes that Tobin can't decipher which one she's actually feeling. All she wants to do is kiss her, kiss her until she can't breathe.

"Are you okay?" Alex asks her and she nods, feeling the tension in the air increase when the taller girls eyes dart down to her own lips.   
"Thank you", Tobin stutters out, locked in Alex's gaze.   
"Don't worry about it", Alex smiles and Tobin's heart flutters a little.   
It's silent as the two just stare at each other, but neither do and a soft knock on the door pulls them apart.   
Alex grunts and gets up to open the door but Tobin stops her, "I got it"

She slides past Alex, their hands grazing over each other. Tobin smiles, but it disappears when she opens the door and sees Kelley standing there.

"Oh, hey"  
"Don't you oh hey me", Kelley whisper yells and shoves past Tobin.  
"Come on in", Tobin says sarcastically to herself.   
"Oh, I didn't know you two were in here together", Kelley says when she sees Alex sitting on the edge of the bed.   
"We weren't-"  
"I don't wanna know", the freckles soldier says and turns to Tobin, "What the hell?"  
"What?" Tobin asks confused.   
"What do you mean what? You faded on us Tobin! You had me worried sick on the heli and then the showers, and I just woke up to Carli at me door saying she heard you screaming and-"  
"Kelley I have no control over the things that trigger me and how they trigger me", Tobin snaps.   
"No, we had this talk. You control everything that happens to you and how you handle it. You could have at least acknowledge us once, said you were okay or that you weren't or something!"  
"How am I supposed to acknowledge you when I'm in shock?" Tobin asks.  
Kelley flails her arms a bit, "I don't know! You could've nodded or something, but you didn't have to shut me out"  
"Kelley", Alex warns and receives a glare from the shorter girl.   
"Not shut you out? You expect me to go through all of that and not shut you out? I understand that I haven't done my best to get over Lauren's death, but I thought Ashlyn and Ali were dead. Dead. They're my friends, Kelley. I wasn't prepared to lose more people. And I get it, we're in the middle of a war and we lose people all the time but I wasn't going to lose them over Atlas. You have no right to tell me how I'm supposed to react in this situation!"

Kelley is quiet and taken aback by Tobin's reaction. 

She's never heard Tobin yell before, not like that, "Shit, you're right I'm sorry"  
As quick as she can, Kelley throws her arms around Tobin, "I'm so sorry. I was just worried you weren't gonna come back from this one"  
Tobin smiles sadly and hugs Kelley back, "It's alright Kelley, you're forgiven"  
"You forgive people way too easily", Alex finally speaks up.   
Kelley and Tobin both laugh and pull away, Kelley wiping away a few tears that had escaped.   
"So, are you okay?" Kelley asks.  
"I'm starting to let go, I mean I feel like shit but yeah, I don't think I'll be zoning out again soon"  
"Good, that's good"  
"Thanks for worrying though", Tobin smirks and receives a nudge from Kelley as she makes her way out.   
"Still an asshole"  
"Oh please, I'm an angel", Tobin playfully quips at Kelley before closing the door. 

She turns around to see Alex smiling at her. She smiles at the sight and walks over to the bed.   
"Can we go back to sleep now?" Alex asks with the smile still plastered on her face.   
"We?" Tobin says playfully, but Alex seems to take it serious and she starts stuttering.   
"I- I mean, I can- I can go back to my unit if you want. You dont- I mean I didn't mean to-"  
"I was kidding, scoot over", Tobin laughs.   
"Oh", is all Alex says before smiling again and scooting closer to the wall. 

Tobin lifts the covers and slides in and immediately cuddles up next to Alex, throwing an arm around her waist and burying her face in Alex's neck. Alex's arm snakes around Tobin's waist, the other shifting her Tobin's neck. 

"Goodnight Alex", Tobin whispers contently.   
"Goodnight Tobin"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have cried while writing the dream. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter though! Don't hate me for not getting a Talex kiss in, I promise all of your wishes will be fullfilled soon! And I will actually update on Tuesday, so don't worry about the wait. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Gimme some comments on what you think (:


	6. You Want A Story? You've Got One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning/night everyone! I can't thank y'all enough for all the kudos and comments. So here's another chapter for you! It's still kind of short, which I hate and I apologize. 
> 
>  
> 
> Hit me up ; becauseizzy.tumblr.com & @ holy.heath on instagram

Alex groans lowly, not wanting to face the light behind her eyes.  
"Tobin"  
She hears a mumble and a hand pulling her closer.  
"Tobin we have to get up"  
"No"  
Alex sighs, slowly opening her eyes. She has to squint against the light, but eventually her eyes adjust. She doesn't really want to get out of bed, but she know she has to.  
"Fine", she hears Tobin say.  
They both manage to get up, stretching and heading towards the showers. Alex can't help but think it's so domestic, waking up with Tobin like there isn't a war going on outside the walls. 

"You don't have to stay with me you know", Tobin says to Alex.  
Alex frowns in response, "What do you mean?"  
"You're following me around like I'm gonna get lost if you look away for one second"  
"I'm just worried about you", Alex says sincerely.  
"I'm not a kid, I can handle myself", Tobin snaps and Alex's brows furrow.  
"Right, I'm sorry", she says, turning the other way and walking back to her unit. 

////

When Carli wakes up it's fairly early, she knows no one is awake since all the hallway lights are still turned off. She smiles to herself, heading down the hall to the locker rooms. She makes sure to pass by Tobin's unit on her way, using her Captains access to open the door and making sure she's okay. It's still fairly dark in the room, but she can see Tobin sleeping soundly. What throws her off is seeing Alex with her, their legs all tangled up. Carli laughs quietly when she hears Tobin's soft snore, so she closes the door and heads to the locker room. 

She notices the lights in the locker room are on, which is weird because she's always the first one awake. 

"Christen I swear, you're ridiculous", Carli recognizes Julie's voice echoing off the walls. She turns the corner and sees Christen balancing a soccer ball on the tip of her nose while Julie watches.  
"Well good morning", she says and the two instantly perk up.  
"Oh, good morning Captain", Christen says with a stern face, causing Carli to laugh.  
"You don't have to call me Captain all the time, Christen. Just call me Carli"  
"Oh, okay", Christen says and Julie laughs.  
"Good morning Carlos"  
Carli smiles and turns her attention back to Christen, who now has the ball tucked under her arm, "Where'd you get that?"  
"Oh uh, Alex and I always carried one around in case we got some free time somewhere"  
"Did you two play before the war started?" Julie asks as Carli heads to her own locker.  
"Alex and I were about to play for the NWSL, Mal was in a U14 club and Abby was already retired so yeah, soccer was pretty much our whole lives", Christen answers shyly.  
"When were you in the military then?"  
"We all were born at a Fort on the east coast, Mal was just starting to go into training and Abby was our superior officer. About two years before the war we moved to Texas to start playing soccer. Mal was still super young so we had to be really careful with our schedules. And then the war started and we were kind of lone ducks for a while until we heard about Atlas, and the rest is history"

It's silent for a couple minutes as Carli soaks it in. She knows that Christen is holding back a lot about her life, probably because she's only been here for a couple days and Carli understands that. She's heard plenty of stories about Atlas and the way they work. She doesn't even want to think about the things they did to Christen and her team, their interview file gave enough information to say it seemed traumatizing. 

"What about Servando? Alex's boyfriend?" Carli asks a little hesitantly.  
"Oh yeah, well he kind of came in when we moved to Texas. He played for a mens club and they met at some team bonding thing. He had some training with the military so he came with us to Atlas", Christen pauses and seems to contemplate something, "To be honest with you I never liked him. He seemed  
a little, sketchy. Like he knew something that we didn't. I think that's the reason he got shot last year"  
"How did he get shot?"  
Carli feels like she's pushing too much information out of the younger girl but she doesn't seem to mind, "We were on our way to a rebel outpost in the area, around Montana, and I think Atlas was catching up on us since there was nothing but open field. We got into the rebel camp and Atlas was already there waiting for us. We tried to run but they grabbed Servando and Alex tried to put up a fight to get him back but it was useless. They shot him right in front of Alex, right here", Christen pointed to the side of her head, "Alex was traumatized and it took all of our power to get her into the trucks"

Carli was sitting down by now, listening intently to Christen. She watched Julie run a hand over her back and Christen smiles sadly at her. 

"It's been a year though, so I'm sure she's over it now. I've seen the way she looks at Tobin too. When we were at the Atlas base and Tobin came out of cover Alex froze up and she wouldn't shoot. She's never done that, she always shoots"  
"They do seem to have a special bond. You guys have only been here for a couple days and they're already attached at the hip", Christen laughs at Julie's words and it causes a smile Carli to smile. She can tell the two have something going on between them, so she decides to leave them to themselves.  
"Well, thanks for sharing your story. It's something I won't be forgetting soon. I'll see you two at breakfast?"  
"Yeah sure", they both reply and Carli sends one last nod to them before heading back out.  
She's about to open the door but it flings open and Tobin comes stumbling in, "Well good morning Tobin, I wasn't expecting you to be up yet"  
"Oh hi Carli", she rubs the back of her neck like she usually does when she's nervous, "Alex made me get up so, here I am"  
"Are you doing okay?"  
"Yeah, I think I've finally gotten over it. It's been a year so I guess it's time to let go"  
"Well that's good", Carli says as she pats Tobin's shoulder, "I'll see you later"  
"Yeah, you too", Carli can tell there's something off about Tobin still, but it's not the same thing as her Lauren reaction. She decides to shake it off and let Tobin figure it out, she's not a child after all. 

////

"Good morning ladies, I hope you all got a good nights rest last night because today is going to be a busy day. Becky and I have been talking and we decided that it's time for another round of tests", a collection of groans go through the room, "Yes yes I know you all hate them but it's necessary. It's been a while since we've had them and we need to know if any of you can be helpful in different areas. We've come up with your partners already, we'll be heading up to Seattle with the Reign tomorrow. I expect all of you to cooperate and do these tests to the best of your ability. After lunch we'll post the partner list outside the hanger, and you all can make your way to your units to pack. We'll only be spending five days there, so pack accordlingly. You're dismissed"  
"This sucks, I probably won't get you as a partner this time", Kelley groans and leans her head on Hope's shoulder.  
"Oh please, they wouldn't dare pull us apart. It'll be fine babe, it's just five days", Hope leans in and kisses Kelley softly, earning her a hum.  
"Get a room you two", Megan makes a gagging noise as she passes by the couple.  
"Shut up Pinhead, let them be a gross couple", they hear Sydney yell.  
The couple laughs and they get up to go to lunch, falling into conversation easily. 

////

"Who do you think they're gonna put us with?"  
"Probably somebody we don't even know, I wanna be with Julie"  
"Ugh, you two are already gross"  
"Oh like you and Tobin aren't worse?"  
"What no, Tobin and I aren't-"  
"Nope, don't fight me on this one. You and Tobin totally have a thing, even if you won't admit it"

Alex rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to her food. Tobin hasn't even acknowledged her since this morning. And maybe they'd been a little, intimate, recently but that doesn't mean anything. Tobin hasn't made any moves, not that Alex shouldn't be the first one to make the move but it would be nice to be given some kind of sign that Tobin actually feels the same way.

"See! You do like her", Christen practically yells, gaining the attention of a couple people around.  
"Christen shut the hell up", Alex glares at her friend, "Fine, yes I like her are you happy?"  
"I knew it!" A new voice says behind Alex.  
She turns around to see Kelley standing there with a grin plastered on her face, "Wait Kelley-"  
"Don't worry I won't tell her", Kelley assures her, "But you should know that Toby does feel the same way"

And with that she walks away with Hope in two behind her. Alex turns back to Christen, who is smirking at her so she rolls her eyes again. 

////

 

"Hey Tobin, can I ask you something?"  
"Sure", she says without looking up from her bible.  
"How does this whole test thing work? Like do you ever really know who you're gonna be put with?"  
"Not really. I know Ashlyn and Ali are usually together, same goes for Kelley and Hope. Carli and Becky know that if they pull them from each other there will be lots of complaining and grumpyness so they just keep them together. I've been with someone different ever since-", Tobin stops herself but pushes through it anyways, "Ever since Lauren died I've been with someone different"  
"Oh", is all Mallory says. 

Tobin shakes it off though, her dream nightmare thing opened her mind up a bit. It's not that she doesn't want to think about it, she just wants to stop feeling so empty before she goes out to the battlefield. She wants to stop breaking down all the time. And maybe Lauren was right, Alex seemed to help a lot more than anyone else ever has, but she hasn't talked to her since she snapped at her this morning. She's really going to have to apologize for that later. 

////

"Do you think we'll get put together?"  
"I don't know, maybe being in the locker room this morning helped Carli decide whether or not she should"  
"I mean, we work together good right?"  
"Christen, you've only been here for like, four days"  
"Yeah, doesn't mean I haven't already proven myself", Christen whispers seductively into Julie's ear, turning her attention back to the food in front of her.  
"You are unbelievable", Julie smirks, Christen laughing in return. 

////

"What about Tolex?"  
"That's almost as bad as Hopelley"  
"Tobex?"  
"God Megan you're horrible at this, what about Talex?"  
"Talex sounds good"  
"What's Talex?"  
Carli's voice startles Syndey and Megan, causing both of them to go into various stages of screaming.  
"Okay okay calm down, jeez"  
"Sorry, you scared us"  
"Obviously"  
"Talex is Tobin and Alex's ship name", Sydney explains.  
"Oh no not this again", Carli mentally face palms herself.  
"Oh yes", Syd and Megan say together. 

////

"Krashlyn has arrived!" Tobin hears Kling yell after the cafeteria doors open. 

She turns her head to the entrance, watching Ashlyn and Ali get swarmed by the crowd of girls. She laughs to herself and slowly makes her way over to them, eventually ending up at the front of the group. 

"Dude, you look like shit", Ashlyn says to Tobin and receives a light tap from Ali.  
"I can say the same for you", Tobin smiles and pulls Ashlyn in for a hug.  
"Careful careful careful, still injured", Ashlyn quickly groans out.  
Tobin loosens her grip immediately, not wanting to put her best friend in more pain, "Sorry"  
"When are we gonna hear the story bitches?" Megan yells from the back of the group.  
"Oh hush Pinhead, you can read the file on our traumatic experience", Ali says jokingly, earning laughs from the group.  
"No but seriously, what was that stuff on the ceiling?" Kelley asks.  
"Oh it was just corn syrup and food coloring"  
"For what?" Carli asks incredulously.  
"Well we were planning to trap them but things kind of got out of hand and our bombs exploded a little too early. Ashlyn got covered by one of the shelves and passed out so I had to drag her into a closet so Atlas wouldn't find us"  
"They really are dumb", Ashlyn says and everyone laughs again.  
"I'm definitely gonna have to read that file", Morgan says, and everyone nods in agreement.  
"We're just glad you survived", Becky says as she passes by the group, causing everyone to huddle around the couple in a giant group hug. 

////

"Alright everyone settle down. Just form a nice, neat line and we can all just-", Carli tries to settle the group down but everyone comes at her in a large swarm so she quickly slides to the side. 

Kelley is the first one to the paper, followed by Kling and Mallory. 

"Test Partners;  
First Floor:  
Kling and Moe  
Pinoe and Sydney  
Julie and Christen  
Pugh and Crystal

Second Floor:  
Emily and Alyssa  
Ali and Ashlyn  
Christie and Abby  
Stephanie and Sammy

Third Floor:  
Lindsey and Heather  
Whitney and Allie  
Hope and Kelley  
Tobin and Alex

p.s. don't make us regret this please"

"Hell yeah Sydney!"  
"Looks like you're stuck with me Moe"  
"I knew they wouldn't tear O'Solo and Krashlyn apart"  
"Julie look we're together I told you!"  
"Oh my gosh Mallory!"  
"Ooooh, Captain America got the new veteran"  
"Oh hush, I hope the second and third floor have ear plugs"  
"Since when did Tobin and Alex start talking?"  
"Since the day they got here you baboon"

"Did we make a mistake?"  
"Probably, but you gotta have a little fun during a war right?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are we thinking???


	7. Almost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, what's this? Another update that isn't on my schedule??
> 
> So I don't think I'll be sticking to the schedule, I have a lot of free time besides soccer so I'll either try to do every day or every other day. But yeah, surprise again!!
> 
> I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as i am. Please tell me if these chapters aren't long enough, I'll gladly make them longer or stop cutting them in half. And if you want to see more of something tell me that too. Thank you guys!
> 
> Hit me up; becauseizzy.tumblr.com & @ holy.heath on instagram

Tobin couldn't help but feel relieved that Alex was her partner. She really needs to apologize for snapping at her earlier, and she really needs to face the fear of her feelings. 

"You okay there Tobs?" Kling asks Tobin as she's slowly walking to her unit.  
"Yeah, just been thinking"  
"Can I ask what you're thinking about?"

Tobin stops walking, contemplating if she should tell Kling. She guesses it would be beneficial to get someone else's input to her situation, but she never knows who could listening or find out. 

"Come on, let's go to my unit", Tobin drags Kling into the room, shutting the door behind her and locking it just in case.   
"Okay", Kling drags out, confused.   
"Alex"  
"What?"  
"That's who I'm thinking about"  
Realization crosses over her face, "OH. Oh. So you, like, like her?"  
"I guess you could say that"  
"Well that's good, I think"  
"I just don't know how she feels. I mean, she's only been here for a couple days and I already feel like I've known her all my life. And she calms me down when I start panicking"  
"I got you Tobito, I'll be right back", Kling says as she starts heading out the door, but Tobin grabs her arm and pulls her back.   
"Wait, what are you going to say?"  
"I don't know yet, I'll think of it on my way there"  
Tobin rolls her eyes but shoos the tiny soldier out anyways, hoping that she won't blow anything. 

////

Alex falls on her bed the second she gets in her unit, tired already from the interaction of everyone. She's mostly tired of thinking, about Tobin, about how the test will go, about everything really. She wishes she would stop thinking about Tobin though. She feels like she's going through some high school crush, even though there's a war going on. 

"So what are you gonna do about Tobin?" Alex hears Kelley sit down in her chair.  
"I don't know", she groans into a pillow and turns on her back, "I wish I could just ask her how she feels but she's already got a lot on her plate"  
"Just give it some time"  
"But what if she gives up? What if she's waiting for me to make a move and I never do so she just gives up?"  
"Tobin's stubborn, she won't give up that easily unless you tell her clearly that you want nothing to do with her", Kelley snorts and notices the soccer ball in the corner of the room.   
"You can kick it if you want", Alex says lazily, falling back onto her back and running a hand over face.

She hears Kelley pick it up and bounce it a couple times before she hears it hit her foot, she guesses she's juggling it. 

"Hey, you're Alex right?" Alex practically jumps off her bed when she hears an unfamiliar voice in her doorway.   
She looks up and sees Kling standing there looking at her, "Yeah. Meghan right?"  
"Yeah, but you can call me Kling", she smiles widely, it kind of reminds Alex of Tobin's megawatt smile.   
"What's up?" Alex asks, slightly confused.   
"I just saw you got paired with Tobin, that's pretty cool", Kelley stops juggling the ball and stares widely at Kling.   
Alex's heartbeat picks up slightly, not knowing how to react so she acts indifferent, "Uh yeah, it's whatever"  
"How do you feel about it?"  
Alex is more than confused now, why is Kling asking her this? Does she know? Because if she does Alex is going to have to have a very long talk with Kelley and Christen.   
"I'm not really excited about it if that's what you mean. It's only for five days, nothing special"  
Kelley gives her a 'what the hell' look that she slightly shrugs to, "Oh, well that's cool I guess. Have fun, she's always cool to room with"

And with that the tiny soldier walks away, leaving Kelley and Alex alone in silence. 

"Do you think she knows?" Alex asks quietly.   
"She knows something, that's for sure"  
"You didn't tell anyone right?"  
"No! And I made Hope swear to secrecy", Kelley says slightly offended.  
"That leaves Christen", Alex whispers to herself. 

She makes the split decision to jump up and sprint down the hall to Christens room, earning a couple weird looks from her teammates. She's sure she has her Face of Determination and Eminent Death on, judging by the way Abby and Mallory quickly step away from her as she passes them. She finally makes it to Christen's room and swings the door open. Her eyes dart around the room until they finally land on Christen, kissing Julie very non-innocently. 

"What the hell Alex?" Christen yells and moves off of Julie.  
"Oh for the love of god, lock your door if you're gonna be sneaking around like this", Alex covers her eyes just in case, "Are you at least fully clothed?"  
"Yeah, what do you want?"  
Alex uncovers her eyes and meets Christen's glare with her own, "Have you told anyone?"  
"About what?"  
"The thing", Alex practically growls.   
Christen narrows her eyes, but then they blow wide and she starts shaking her head, "No, why would I tell anyone?"  
"Uh, I don't mean to interrupt but what are you guys talking about?" Julie asks.  
Christen looks at Alex, who has now grown pale, for any sign that she could tell Julie.   
"I may or may not have a slight crush on Tobin and Kelley overheard me tell Christen and somehow Kling knows something about it", Alex says quickly, clenching her fists to calm herself.   
"I didn't tell anyone, and no one but Kelley was around us when you confessed so I don't understand how-"  
"Oh my god what if Tobin already knows"  
"If Tobin knew she would have already asked you about it, alone", Julie explains.   
"So I just have to avoid being alone with her?"  
"Alex you're rooming with her", Christen reminds Alex, and Alex just slumps her shoulders and pouts on the way out of the room. 

////

"I don't know Tobin, she seemed kind of whatever about it. Or that's what she kept saying", Tobin's shoulders slump, as does her mood.   
"What else did she say?" Tobin knew the answer was going to break er heart somehow, but she asked anyways.  
Kling sighs, not wanting to break Tobin's heart but she deserved to know, "When I asked how she felt about it she called it nothing special"  
"Oh", is all Tobin says.   
"Sorry dude", Kling pats Tobin's shoulders a little, walking out of the unit to give Tobin some alone time. 

She knows Tobin is already head over heels, or at least getting there and if Alex really didn't feel the same way this was all going to go downhill very fast. They should all be focused on the task at hand, the war. But even Kling knows that the girls need an escape from it, someone to be with when it all ends. Morgan was Kling's person, even though they were only best friends she still felt like she could count on Moe to be there when it's all over. She's kind of scared that everyone will part way, she doesn't want to leave anyone at all, she hopes they all stick together somewhere just in case. 

////

"Come on ladies we don't have all day", Carli yells out into the hanger.   
"I think I forgot my toothbrush", Ashlyn says as she pats her bag.  
"I have it babe", Ali waves the toothbrush in Ashlyn's face, earning her a snear.  
"Ugh, we're taking the team bus, wonderful", Tobin groans as the giant bus comes into view.   
"What's bad about the bus?" Christen asks next to her.   
"Nothing, I would just rather be in my truck or something"  
"Do you have to go on the team bus?"   
"Yep", Tobin pops, lugging her bag into the bottom of the bus and hopping on . 

She walks to the back where Hope and Kelley already are, throwing herself into the window seat and pulling her red baseball cap over her face. She pulls out her headphones, quickly plugging them into her iPod and putting it on shuffle. She doesn't notice everyone packing onto the bus, she's half asleep by the time Carli says they're heading out. She feels a tap on her shoulder, pulling her from her almost sleep. She rubs the sleep from her eyes and looks to her right. Alex is smiling softly at her, a grey beanie laying lazily on the back of her head.   
Tobin smiles back, but then remembers lashing out at Alex and frowns. 

"Hey, it's okay. I was being a little overprotective, you had every right to be angry", Alex whispers just loud enough for Tobin to hear her.   
"I still shouldn't have snapped like that, I'm sorry"  
Alex rolls her eyes and smiles, "Apology accepted Toby"  
"No", Tobin cries out, "Not you too"  
"Yep, Kelley let me in on that little nickname", Alex pokes Tobin playfully.   
"Very funny, come here you weirdo", Tobin throws and arm around Alex, pulling her closer and giving her a noogie.   
"Tobin no!" Alex laughs and tries to wriggle away but Tobin keeps her in place.   
Eventually Alex gives up and wraps her arms around Tobin's waist, laying her head on her shoulder, "It's gonna be a long ride, might as well get some sleep"   
"Hey Tobin?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I'm glad you got us to stay"  
"Why?"  
"If I had never met you I wouldn't have a new best friend"  
A sad smile stretches across Tobin's lips.

Yeah, just friends.

////

Tobin is deep asleep when she feels a tug on her arm, "Tobin?"  
Tobin mumbles a reply, but it's obviously not good enough for whoevers trying to wake her up because there's another tug on her arm but harder.   
"What?" Tobin says a little louder, using a lot of her energy to say it all.   
"Tobin, wake up"  
She groans loudly and opens her eyes to see Alex staring intensely at her. She's got in the taller girls gaze, unable to say anything as she stares into her favorite blue eyes. Her gaze slowly goes from Alex's eyes to her lips, the ones she wants to kiss so bad.   
"Tobin", Alex whispers and she looks back up, noticing how they both were looking at each others lips.   
Tobin realizes how close she is to Alex and remembers her thoughts before she fell asleep. She leans backk in her seat and pretends to change the song on her IPod, trying to gather her thoughs before she loses it.  
"Yeah what's up?"  
"They stopped the bus so we could stretch, do you want to get off?", Tobin hears a hint of sadness in Alex's voice but ignores it.   
"Sure", Tobin stands and follows Alex off the bus, taking in her surroundings. 

They stopped a couple miles away from the beach, but she can still see the water on the shore. The sun is slowly setting, creating a pinkish glow in the sky. Everyone is spread out on the edge of the highway, some stretching and some just watching the sunset. She follows Alex to the edge of the highway, sitting on the broken highway divider. Alex jumps over it and stretches her arms out, lifting her shirt up in the process. The noise she makes should be illegal, it sends a wave of sparks through Tobin. Her eyes trail over Alex's defined abs, almost getting caught by Alex when she opens her eyes back up. Alex sits next to Tobin, a little closer than usual but Tobin thinks nothing of it. 

"It's pretty, isn't it?"  
"Yeah, it is", Tobin isn't really paying attention to the sunset, but Alex instead. The pink glow makes the blue in her eyes pop out more, it makes them a little more grey than anything but it's beautiful to Tobin anyways. She doesn't even care when Alex catches her staring, she smiles and Tobin smiles back instantly.   
"Why're you staring at me?" Alex asks with a smile still on her face.  
"Because you're beautiful", Tobin doesn't know what kind of courage she got to say it but she did and she's absolutely sure Alex is blushing now. Tobin smirks and shifts her gaze to Alex's smile. She doesn't notice Alex slightly leaning forward, she doesn't even notice herself leaning forward.   
////

"Guys it's about to happen shut up", Kelley whisper yells to the group that had formed behind Alex and Tobin. They watch closely as the two soldiers continue leaning forward, it seems like it's taking them forever but their lips are only inches apart. They can all tell the air is tense and it's quiet, everyone on the tip of their toes to celebrate. The group leans slowly forward, still waiting for the moment to happen. 

"Alright ladies, back on the bus!"  
"Are you serious!?"

Everyone shouts and cries out loudly as Alex and Tobin flinch apart. Kelley and Pinoe drop to the ground and run hands over their faces. Hope and Kling are giving Carli the best death glares they can give as they get back on the bus. Ali and Ashlyn both feel like they just lost a seriously important game, slumping their shoulders and groaning as they watch Tobin and Alex move apart and get back on the bus. 

"We were so close", Kelley wails with Pinoe on the ground.  
"Alright, come on guys", Ashlyn pulls Pinoe up as Ali pulls Kelley up, both of them patting their backs to try and cheer them up.  
"Maybe next time", Ali says, a little sad that Carli ruined the perfect moment.  
"Carli can't be anywhere near when it happens", Pinoe snaps, obviously pissed off. 

Ashlyn sighs when the two bafoons are finally on the bus, "This is gonna be a long five days"

////

So that totally wasn't awkward, Tobin thinks.   
She noticed how everyone was watching behind them, and she finally noticed how close she was to Alex when they jumped apart. She wasn't complaining, not really. Okay maybe a little, she was about to kiss Alex. Like, actually kiss her. On the lips. In the best way possible. So yeah, she was complaining and silently fuming in her window seat, but she wasn't going to let it bother her. Or she wasn't going to let it get in the way of her fighting or thinking during these tests. 

"Sorry Tobin", Hope whispers as the bus finally starts moving again. 

Tobin just shrugs, ignoring Alex looking at her and turning back to the scenery passing by. She falls asleep eventually, once it gets dark. Her sleep is restless and empty, she's glad she hasn't dreamed anything since last night, but she'd like to do something besides toss and turn a bunch. 

"Take your time getting to your rooms. Dawn will be there to give you your keys, just try to get off the bus asap. I don't want Dawn to be up all night waiting for any of you", Tobin hears when she starts waking up. Alex is still asleep next to her, obviously not used to hearing Carli's voice yet. 

Hope and Kelley are up and stretching, waiting for everyone in front of them to get off. Kelley sends a smile Tobin's way, getting one in return but it's a tired one. Kelley chuckles, walking down the aisle and leaving Alex alone with Tobin once again. 

"Alex", no response, "Alex come on we gotta get up"  
"I don't wanna", she mumbles, shifting so she's leaning on Tobin.  
"Come on, just get off the bus and I'll carry you to the room"  
Alex hums in delight and slowly stands up, stretching her arms over her head again and walking off the bus, "Thanks for driving Becky"  
Tobin smiles at Alex's half asleep state, thanking Becky and walking after Alex, "Hey Kels, can you take our bags up for us? I have to carry Alex up"  
Kelley rolls her eyes but smiles anyways, "You guys are gross"  
"Not as gross as your face", Alex mumbles and throws her arms around Tobin.  
"Oh my gosh", Tobin burst out laughing at Kelley's offended face.  
"Sleepy Alex is a bitch", Hope laughs and plants a kiss on Kelley's cheek, instantly cheering her up.   
"Yeah, we're the gross ones", Tobin says as she plants her chin on Alex's shoulder.  
Hope and Kelley share a look as Tobin buries her face in Alex's neck, "Definitely. "

"Welcome back ladies, is this Alex Morgan?" Dawn smiles at the group when they finally enter the building.  
"Yep, but don't worry, she's usually way more useful than this"  
"Baby Horse is just a little tired"  
"Baby Horse?" Tobin asks incredulously, giving Kelley a weird look.  
"I had to fitness test her after she got settled in and she runs the fastest mile I've ever seen. You should've seen her run a lap on the track"   
"So you called her Baby Horse?"  
"Tobin, let it go and let's get to our room please?" Hope pouts.  
"Fine", she turns her attention to Dawn who is grinning at them, "I'll take they keys"  
Dawn hands her the keys in her free hand, walking them to the elevator, "Breakfast is at 9, we'll start training at 11. Goodnight ladies, get some rest. It's going to be a long week"  
"You got it boss", Tobin says and hits the button for the third floor.

There's minimal complaining from Kelley for having to carry their bags, and Tobin is just glad she finally gets to lay down and sleep. When she enters the room she sets Alex down, searching for a light and finally finds a lamp on a table by the window. The room is colored a light grey, a single fan cools the room and theres a door to the bathroom to the right of the entrance. Two beds take up most of the space, it looks mostly like a hotel room except for the single lock on the door and no TV. 

"Thanks guys, you can just set them down on the extra bed"  
"You're sleeping in the same bed?" Hope asks.   
Tobin internally panics for a second, "Well I just assumed she'd want to so-"  
"Tobs, shut up", Kelley chuckles and drags Hope out of the room.   
"No sex please!" Tobin yells after them, hearing Hope laugh loudly. 

Tobin yawns and lifts her arms over head, starting to head to the bathroom but Alex pulls Tobin into the bed. She throws a leg over Tobin's and holds her down with an arm, burying her head into the crook of Tobin's neck. 

"Shower in the morning", she mumbles.  
"But I don't want to stay in these clothes", Tobin retorts.  
"Quit complaining and go to sleep"  
Tobin shakes her head but she shifts to get comfortable anyways. Alex leans closer into her, if that was even possible, and sighs contently. Tobin would've told Alex to use the pillows but she didn't want to wake Alex even more or risk not getting to fall asleep in her arms. And she definitely wouldn't have let Alex keep her down if they hadn't almost kissed earlier, considering the fact that Kling told her Alex only thought of them as friends. But what if Alex only liked the idea of Tobin. It got pretty lonely during a war, Tobin wouldn't exactly blame Alex for wanting to be with someone when half the population is dead. Tobin just hopes Alex really feels the same way, for her own sake.


	8. I Saw Sparks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you're welcome

It was dark and cold, Alex could feel droplets of water from the ceiling running down her arms and neck. She's been here before, she knows she has but she can't remember where she is or why she feels so panicked. A dim light shines through a grate near the ceiling, barely illuminating the room. Alex looks around the room, trying to find any sign of escape. There's no door or anything, only the tiny grate on the wall. 

She walks over to the grate and looks out. She can't see anything besides bright light, it seems too bright to not be illuminating the room. 

"Wonderful", Alex whispers to herself and turns back to the room. 

Something seems different about it, Alex's eyebrows furrow as she carefullly examines the room. After what feels like forever she realizes the room is slowling getting tinier and she starts to panic. 

"No, no no please no", she says as she runs her hands over the walls. 

The speed seems to pick up and Alex starts panicking even more. She hates small spaces, hates it more than anything. She pushes against the wall more but the speed picks up even more the more she pushes. She turns back to the grate and runs over to it, standing on her toes to look out. 

"Someone help me!" She screams, hoping someone will hear her but nothing happens. 

She turns back to the room and she's sure it's only as long as two of her, "Oh please don't be happening"

She slides down the wall and leans her head back. She's kind of used to these dreams by now, but she can't help but panic when these things start happening. It's kind of like the war, she's used to the fighting and the dying but she's still scared of walking out of safety everyday. She's scared of leaving Tobin, but she's even more scared of Tobin leaving her. She's not even going to try and deny her feelings, they're there and she can't ignore the sparks she gets when Tobin touches her or the butterflies when she looks at her. 

"Alex"  
No.  
"Alex look at me"  
"No", she squeezes her eyes shut and tries to wake up but more voices fill the room.  
"Look at us Alex"  
"Face what you've done Alex"  
"Why won't you face your fears Alex?"  
"Stop!" She screams and covers her ears but the voices fill her head too.  
"Look at what you've done", her head flings up at that one voice. The voice that makes living in this cruel world easier. She stares into those light brown eyes, seeing all the pain and sorrow a person could have in her eyes.   
"I'm sorry", Alex rasps out but it's no use. Everyone in the room, all the faces of fear and death lunge out at her and she wants to scream but she can't. She's staring into the eyes of Servando now, and his face is the same as it was when he was shot. 

"No!" Alex screams as everyone in the room reach out towards her. They all yell and scream at her, reminding her of everything she's done and she can't take it anymore.

////

Alex gasps awake, feeling sweat drip down her forehead. She looks around the room, noticing the lamp light still on, she's glad she didn't wake up in the dark. She stumbles out of the bed, needing to get cool air onto her body. She throws the curtain on the window back and sighs when early morning light pours in. She twists around and runs to the bathroom, immediately splashing cold water onto her face when she gets to the sink. She gasps again and feels her heart beating hard and fast, she feels like it could pop out of her chest at any moment. 

She looks into the mirror, flinching at the sight. Dark, heavy bags sit under her eyes, her face stained with tears. She stares into her own dark blue eyes, not liking the emotions shes seeing so she tears her gaze away. And then she feels the tingling all on her back and her neck. She thinks she can stand it until it goes away but she has to rip her shirt off after a couple of minutes. She turns her back to the mirror, trailing her eyes over the marks on her back. A burn for every ten deaths, a burn for every reminder of what she's done. She looks away, remembering the feeling of the burns when she first got them. She turns back around to face the mirror, placing both hands on the counter and taking deep breaths. 

Slowly, she feels herself calming down. The tingling from her back is replaced with a numbness that she hates. She closes her eyes and continues breathing for what seems like forever, trying to get the burned image of the faces of death off of her eyelids. She hates those dreams, she hates seeing all of the dead faces and hearing all the screams she caused. She hates it all, and the new addition to the faces is making her anxious, scared, terrified really. She doesn't want anything to happen to Tobin. If anything were to happen it should be to her. Tobin doesn't deserve any of it, Alex does. 

And just like that, she feels fingers trailing over back. Alex internally scoffs at how Tobin pops up when she starts thinking about her. 

Alex focuses on the way Tobin's fingers glide across her skin, curing the numbness and replacing it with a light fire that follows wherever she touches. 

"I'm sorry if I woke you up", Alex whispers.  
"Don't worry about it", Tobin whispers back, both of her arms snaking around Alex's stomach. She rests her head on Alex's shoulder, one of her hands still tracing over her hip bones. It calms Alex, even though she feels her skin light up at Tobin's touch. 

They stand there for a while, Tobin trying to calm Alex down and Alex taking in the feeling of Tobin. She's been calm for a while now, but she doesn't want to leave Tobin's arms. Alex turns around in Tobin's arms, slowly wrapping her arms loosely around her neck. She opens her eyes and sees Tobin looking at her with an emotion she can't place. She's caught in her stare, the light from the mirror catches Tobin's eyes at the right angle and they look green to Alex. She unconsciously moves her hand and trails her fingers over Tobin's sharp jawline, taking in everything about her. They lean their foreheads together, Alex sighing at finally being this close to Tobin again. 

"Kling told me you weren't excited about rooming with me", Alex furrows her brows as Tobin speaks, "That you just thought of it as two friends sleeping in the same room, nothing special"

Alex doesn't know what to say, she knew Kling was trying to get information from her. She tries to talk to Tobin through her eyes, but she doesn't think it's working. 

"But I'm having a hard time believing that this is just a friend thing", Tobin whispers and looks back up at Alex.   
"I never thought it was just a friend thing", Alex watches Tobin lick and pull on her lips, it makes her do the same thing. 

She shares one last look with Tobin before finally closing the gap between their lips. Tobin's lips are soft and gentle, almost like she's scared to kiss Alex. The kiss is a little hesitant, so Alex pulls Tobin a little closer to let her know it's okay. Tobin seems to get the idea and kisses Alex a litte harder, which Alex gladly returns. Tobin's hand glide over her hips and pull their mid sections closer together. 

They continue kissing, growing heated as they keep going. They turn into open mouth kisses, Alex gliding her tongue over Tobin's bottom lip, asking for entrance. Tobin gladly lets her in, both of them fighting for dominance. Alex moans lowly when Tobin's tongue trails over hers, it sends sparks through her body. She pulls back a little until they're just kissing and pulls on Tobins lip, earning her a groan. Alex smirks and pushes Tobin until her back hits the wall. 

Alex is lost in the feeling of Tobin's lips on hers, she runs her hands over Tobin's stomach, tracing over the defined abs. Alex almost forgets she's only in her bra until Tobins hands trail up her stomach until she's lightly gripping her neck. Alex's lungs are burning so she pulls back, frowning at not kissing Tobin. She looks at Tobin and the tan soldier smirks, flipping their positions so that Alex is pushed up against the wall. Alex gasps at Tobin's control, moaning when she feels Tobin's lips latch onto her neck. She feels Tobin kiss and suck on her skin, Alex moves her neck so Tobin can get more access. She moans a little louder than she should have when Tobin bites at her neck, laughing at herself. 

 

Alex can't take it anymore and pulls Tobin back up until their faces are inches apart again. 

"Hi", Alex smiles at Tobin, biting her lip to keep from looking like an idiot.   
"Hey", Tobin says back, pushing Alex's stray hairs back. It's such an intimate move that Alex crashes their lips back together. Alex feels like she can barely stand with how good of a kisser Tobin is, the feeling of their lips moving together causes a low burn in her stomach. 

"Alex'", Tobin mumbles against her lips so Alex stops.   
"Yeah?"  
"As much as I already love kissing you, breakfast is in five minutes"  
Alex groans and Tobin laughs at her, planting a lingering kiss on Alex's lips before walking out of the bathroom. Alex sighs happily once Tobin is out of earshot, smiling to herself in the mirror.  
"You go Morgan", she says to herself, walking out of the bathroom to start the long day. 

////

"Did you have to use your ear plugs last night Toby?" Pinoe asks with a smirk on her face. Tobin isn't looking at her but she hears skin getting slapped, Hope probably smacked her or something.   
"It was surprisingly quiet on the other side tonight", Tobin says as she sits down.  
"Is O'Solo having a dry spell?" Pinoe gasps dramatically but receives another slap.   
"No you weirdo, we just know how to keep quiet", Hope says as she rolls her eyes.   
Kelley laughs as she sits down on the other side of Pinoe, "But it's very hard to keep quiet when Hope has her fingers so deep inside of me that-"  
"WOAH, NO SHUT UP", Pinoe screams and covers her ears as Kelley leans closer to her.   
Tobin ends up choking on her food and Alex just sits there laughing at Pinoe's reaction.   
"You guys are the worst", Pinoe whines.   
"But you love us", Kelley says with her scrunched nose.  
"Yeah yeah", Pinoe says and looks in Alex's direction. Tobin notices her eyes narrow and grows curious, turning to Alex and almost instantly seeing the problem. A medium sized hickey is exposed on the right side of her neck, Tobin is about to get up and tell her but Pinoe beats her to it.   
"Alex is that a hickey on your neck?"  
Alex's eyes blow wide and she scrambles to find it on her neck. She tries feeling it but its pointless. Tobin watches her emotion go from nervous to slightly angry.   
"I don't know, is it Tobin?" Alex stares straight at Tobin.   
Everyone shifts in their seat to look at the tan soldier, she turns bright red and rubs the back of her neck habitually.   
"Uh, you see what happened-"  
"OH MY GOD THEY FINALLY KISSED AND WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE IT", Pinoe stands and yells, causing everyone else at other tables to turn around.   
"You didn't", Kelley says, offended.  
"Well you see I-"  
"Yes, we kissed. In fact I couldn't help but moan with the things that Tobin can do with her tongue-"  
"NOOO", everyone in the room cries out and covers their ears. Tobin laughs loudly, Alex laughing with her.   
"That is the last thing I expected to hear when I woke up this morning", Carli's voice travels to everyone.   
"Carlos!" Kelley and mostly all the goofy girls get up and practically tackle Carli.   
"Yeah yeah good morning everyone", Carli says as she squeezes out of the group. Everyone in the room laughs, moving their attention back to their respective tables. 

Everyone turns back to their conversations, Alex scoots down the table until she's next to Tobin and takes her hand. Tobin smiles at Alex, rubbing her thumb across Alex's skin. 

"So does this mean you two are like, dating?" Morgan asks Tobin and Alex.   
"Yeah, I guess it does", Alex smiles widely and looks at Tobin who also smiles and nods back.   
Morgan laughs loudly, "Of course Tobin would be the one to find a girlfriend while there's a war going on"  
"Hey!" Hope, Kelley, and Christen say the same time, but Christen quickly covers her mouth as Julie stops chewing.   
Everyone is quiet, mostly because they're waiting for either of them to speak up.   
"Uh, something you guys wanna tell us?" Abby says from across the room. 

Christen slumps into her chair and looks at Julie, who still hasn't moved at all.   
"Christen and I are together", Julie finally says.   
"Chrulie!"   
"Presston!"   
Pinoe and Syndey say at the same time, Pinoe grunting, "Why do you always come up with the better names?"  
"Because I'm smarter"   
"Are not"  
"Are too"  
"Prove it!"  
"Ladies!" Jill's voice scares mostly everyone in the room.   
"Jill!" Everyone but Alex's group yells. 

"This is going to be an interesting day", Tobin whispers to Alex.   
"Tell me about it", she laughs and plants a quick kiss on her cheek.


	9. It's Like It Never Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to make your O'Solo and Presston hearts happy, if any of you actually ship them. This is really just a filler chapter so if you don't like it you can just skip it.

"Julie I am so sorry I didn't mean to blurt that out", Christen says as fast as she can as soon as the door closes. 

When breakfast was over Jill had a quick  
meeting with everyone, mostly to just go over what they would be doing. Julie hadn't said a word to Christen the entire time, or looked her way and Christen was worried she'd screwed things up already. 

"It's just, I want to be proud to be with you and I don't wanna hide it. I mean I know it's only been like two days and I should've asked you first but I just like you a lot and I am so sorry I really hope this doesn't screw things up-"  
Julie rolls her eyes, finally looking at Christen, "Shut up"

Christen is confused at first, but then Julie is marching towards her and pushing her up against the door. Their lips crash together and Christen finally relaxes, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend. 

"Wait, so you're not mad at me?" Christen asks, still kissing Julie.  
"No you idiot, you just caught me off guard" 

Christen smiles against Julie's lips, happy that it was going to work out and she wouldn't have to worry. 

"Stop smiling so I can actually kiss you", Julie whines, hooking her fingers in Christens jeans as she pulls her back to the bed.  
"It's hard not to when it's you I'm kissing", Christen pants lightly, pushing Julie onto the bed and crawling after her.  
"You're such a sap"  
"Only for you"

Julie pulls on Christens neck so she can finally kiss her, both of them sighing when their lips  
finally meet. It grows heated quickly, both of their hands starting to roam a little farther than usual. Christen could feel herself grow a little anxious, she didn't know if they were moving too fast or if they both wanted this. 

"Wait", it's Julie who stops, Christen immediately pulling back.  
"Yeah?"  
"I think we should wait"  
"Oh thank god", Christen sighs, "I was thinking the same thing"  
Julie sighs and smiles too, but her face grows confused when Christen starts sliding off of her, "Uhm hello, that doesn't mean we can't make out?"

Christen rolls her eyes happily, crawling back onto Julie and urgently kissing her again. 

////

"Alright ladies. Today is a big day, the first day you'll be taking the tests with your partners. I'm glad to see there's new editions to FIFA, I'm positive you'll jump into this program smoothly"

Alex smiles politely, waving when heads turn her way. 

"Now today you'll be given your partner test, I'm not going to tell you what it is or what goes with it, just be in your conference rooms when we say. The list is on the wall outside the room, I'll see you all later" 

////

"First floor is conference rooms 1-4 at 11, Second floor is 5-8 at 12, third floor is 1-4 at 1", Carli calls out to the large crowd of girls behind her.  
"Do we do anything while we wait?"  
"Doesn't say anything, I'm guessing we just chill out until then"  
A couple girls cheer in the back, the group slowly disperses out of the room and to their own rooms. The first floor still had a couple minutes until they had to go to the conference rooms, so they just chilled in the lounge. 

"So what do you wanna do for two hours?" Kelley asks as she walks down the hall with Hope.  
"I have a pretty good idea", Hope smirks and grabs Kelleys hand, pulling her down the hall  
faster.  
Kelley smirks to herself, gladly following Hope. But when Hope drags her past their room she grows confused, "Uh, babe?"  
"Be patient", Hope turns back and smiles at Kelley, causing Kelley to smile back. 

Kelley grips Hopes hand tighter, following her farther down the hall and towards the stairwell. Hope pushes past the door, leading Kelley up the stairs. They go past five more floors until the stairs stop and open up to a dimly lit room. Two large steel doors are on the other side of the room, Hope walks up to them, tapping on a keypad until a beep rings through the room. Hope opens the doors, Kelley following swiftly. 

Kelleys breath is taken away when her eyes adjust to the sunlight. They're on the top of the building which has a perfect view of the Reign base. Kelley can see all the soldiers training in the distance, driving and running through the field like she was a couple years ago. The sun is set high in the sky, but the blue of the sky brings happiness to Kelley. Things almost seem normal to her, there's no signs of war here in Seattle and it makes her so happy. 

She turns back to Hope who is staring at her lovingly and she can feel her heart flutter. She quickly runs up to Hope, jumping up and wrapping her arms around her girlfriends neck. Hope laughs and holds Kelley up in her arms, breathing in the scent of peaches and forest that Kelley radiates. 

"I love you"  
"I love you more"  
Kelley scoffs, "Funny"  
"But it's true", Hope whispers and carefully sets Kelley down. 

Kelley wastes no time in pressing her lips softly against Hopes. She stands on her toes to reach her better, running her hands through Hopes hair as they kiss. Hope pulls Kelley closer by her hips, slightly lifting her up so she doesn't have to reach so far. 

Kelleys never felt happier than right now, feeling Hopes lips move against her owns with the base sounds behind her. She almost loses herself in the feeling but a lack of oxygen to her lungs pulls her back. 

"I seriously love you", Kelley whispers again, leaning her forehead against Hopes shoulder, "So much"  
Hope hears her sniffle and grows slightly concerned, "Woah hey, what's wrong?"  
Kelley scoffs, leaning away from Hope and wiping the tears that are slowly making their way out of her eyes, "It's so fucked up"  
"What is?"  
"This entire situation", Kelley yells as she turns away from Hope, "This entire war"  
"Well yeah I know that, but you've never gotten this emotional about it, Kelley what's wrong?" Hope is starting to get seriously worried, Kelleys voice is cracking and she's leaning against the side of the building now.  
"I love you Hope, that's what's wrong", Hope feels her heart sink, "I love you and we're in the middle of a war! We have to wake up early every day just to go out and survive, hell im scared to wake up because I'm so afraid that today could be the day I lose you or you lose me. God, we should be waking up early in each other's arms in some apartment in Cali, smiling because we're with each other and we're happy not smiling because we survived another day. I should be excited to wake up to another day because it means I get to go out and play club soccer and you get to go be keeper for your club, I shouldn't be afraid. I don't want to be afraid, I want to be happy"

Hope is silent for a moment, she had no idea Kelley was holding all of this in. She knew Kelley hated the war situation, how both of them had been thrown into it together. She couldn't count on one hand how many years they'd been together. She can still remember the day she met Kelley at a college party. She was coaching the Stanford keepers for the week when her friends dragged her out to one of the parties happening in some frat house. She was told it was to get the college experience again, but she knew it was just an excuse for her friends to get drunk. But she followed them anyways and that's when she met Kelley. Kelley was surprisingly not drunk and had accidentally bumped into Hope when they both rounded the corner. Hope fell in love instantly, and somehow by the end of the night they both had each other's numbers and romance ensued from there. 

They've been together for 9 years, Hope was actually planning on proposing a couple months before the war started but she got pulled away to a training camp. But when the war actually started Kelley was heartbroken, almost to the point where she didn't even want to get to safety. Hope dragged her out to Seattle where they stayed with Reign for a while until getting moved to FIFA. Kelley got better over the years and they were still a strong couple, but Hope guesses after seven years of war Kelley was getting tired. 

"Hope please say something before I lose my  
mind", Kelley begs, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.  
"Kelley", Hope whispers as she tries to control the tears, "I know you're scared, I know you hate this situation but we can't help it. We were thrown into this together and we have to work  
hard to stay together. I love you, Kelley, and I know there's a soldier still in you that's willing to fight for this"  
"I'm tired of fighting Hope", Kelley chokes out and slides to the ground, dragging Hope down with her.  
"I know baby, I know", Hope doesn't know what else to say so she just holds Kelley as she cries. Hope knows nothing but ending the war will make things better, but she'd do anything to make the love of her life happy. 

////

"So what's this test thing we're doing?" Julie asks Dawn when she finally walks in the room.  
"You're going to talk"  
Christen and Julie are both silent.  
"To each other, about anything you want"  
"So we're just gonna stay in here for an hour, alone?" Christen asks hesitantly.  
"Exactly. And don't worry, we're not watching or listening. We just want you two to talk and get to know each other for the next four days"  
"Seems easy enough", Julie says as she leans back into the couch.  
"Good, so I'll see you ladies in an hour", Dawn says, finally leaving the room. 

"Oh my god I thought she was never gonna leave", Christen sighs as she falls into Julie's lap.  
"Oh hush, you'll get alone time with me anyways"  
"Mmm I like the sound of that", Christen reaches up and pulls Julie down to her, slowly bringing their lips together. 

They kiss slowly and passionately, Julie carefully moving so that Christen is underneath her. Christen runs her hands underneath Julie's sweater, pulling on her bottom lip. Julie moans lowly, grazing her tongue on Christens lip. Christen gladly allows Julie access, both of them fighting for dominance. Julie's hands roam over Christens abs, tracing each defined line until she feels her skin twitch beneath her fingers. Julie smirks against Christens lips, bringing herself impossibly closer to her. Christen gasps when their hips come in contact, causing a low burn to start in her stomach. 

"Julie", she whispers.  
"I know, me too", Julie whispers back and continues to kiss Christen deeply. 

Julie knows that this isn't going to happen anytime soon. And she definitely knows this wouldn't even be how their first time would go. She likes Christen a lot, she's not gonna screw up this soon. 

////

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up ; becauseizzy.tumblr.com & @ holy.heath on instagram


	10. There For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops, my hand slipped
> 
> if suicidal thoughts/mentionings trigger you just skip over it

FIFA had been with Reign for two days now. Tobin and Alex were starting to get closer, learning more about each other as their training went on. They noticed Julie and Christen getting closer too, they didn't really care about being touchy around everyone else so it was kind of hard to ignore how cute they were. But Tobin and Alex were taking it slow, or as slow as they could with the war going. Tobin could tell Ashlyn and Ali were getting a little antsy with their injuries, not being able to go out and train with the team was killing them and it was starting to show. Ashlyn lashed out at Pinoe last night because she couldn't fly the heli for a drill, it took a lot of convincing from Ali but eventually Jill and Dawn let her fly. Everything was kind of tense after that, Ashlyn rarely let her anger get to her but when she did it was never pretty. 

"Ladies, listen up", the room goes silent, "I hate to do this to you but we've had a bit of an emergency situation thrown at us"  
"Not again", Tobin says as she rubs her forehead.   
"We sent a group of stealth operators into a facility last night, they were supposed to be back this morning but we haven't gotten any communications back yet. We'd like to keep this mission on the down low, not a lot of people in Reign know about it and it was a volunteer mission. We need anyone with stealth training to help us out with this, and we need to be able to trust you with the information about it" 

Tobin was skeptical, and she was never skeptical about missions. She had a lot of stealth training, a lot. She had tons of medals for it, she even had Third Echelon and Special Ops training on her transcript. So for her to feel skeptical about it was a big deal. She could feel eyes on her by now, everyone here knew that she was a highly decorated soldier, even for her age, she was perfect for this mission. 

"I'll do it", Tobin says hesitantly.   
"Dude are you sure?" Ashlyn whispers to her.   
"I don't really have a choice Ash"  
"I had stealth training in Atlas, I can help out too", Alex says, standing with Tobin.   
"You two can be out on the field, we need others for communications, data, all the technical work"  
Morgan, Lindsey, and Mallory all stand up, "We'll stay back here and help with tech"   
"Anyone else?"  
"How many more do you need?" Carli asks.   
"Honestly, we were good with just Tobin and Alex but if anyone else wants to help then that'd be good"  
"Is there any way we can help?" Ali asks for her and Ashlyn.   
"If Ashlyn can get cleared in the next two days she can fly, if not you can always help out in the armory"

Tobin watches Ashlyn relax, she knows Ash loves working with the guns and armor when she's not flying. 

"That's good then, you all can relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow will be different though, those who are helping will need to be down here early and ready to get to work. Everyone else will be doing some hard training, I believe your time here has also been extended"  
"Dom is not gonna be happy about this", Sydney whispers.   
"It's war Syd", Kelley snaps. 

That's the other thing, Kelley has been totally out of character since the first day and it's starting to worry Tobin. She knows Hope would come to her if it was something super serious, but this seems completely different. 

Jill doesn't seem to have anything else to say so the girls start piling out of the conference room and towards their rooms. 

"So it's just you and me now", Alex says, lacing her fingers with Tobins.   
"I guess so", Tobin smiles and walks silently to their room. 

Tobin is digging in her pocket for her key when she hears yelling coming from Kelleys room. She looks at Alex, who's furrowing her eyebrows and looking in the direction of their door. 

"Kelley stop!"  
"No, I'm tired of feeling like this!"   
"Kelley Maureen O'Hara I'm serious"  
"Oh right because using my full name is gonna make me stop"  
"God Kelley will you just listen to me?"  
"No! I'm tired of listening, why do you even care anyways?"  
"Why do I care? I fucking care about you because you're my girlfriend and we're supposed to be getting through this together but you're just shutting me out!"  
"God you're only still with me because you can't leave! I'm not an idiot Hope, and I'm definitely not a child"  
"I never said you were one!"  
"Yeah well you're treating me like one and I don't need you to get through this!" 

Tobins jaw drops, "Shit"

"Fine, if that's how you feel I'll just be on my way", the door opens and Hope comes out with tears streaming down her face. Tobin and Alex freeze and watch Hope slam the door closed, sniffling and running her hands over her face.   
"Hope?" Tobin whispers, worried she'll scare her away if she says anything else.   
"She obviously doesn't want me now so I'll just-", she cuts herself off and quickly walks to the stairwell, pushing through the doors and disappearing.  
"I'm gonna talk to Kelley", Tobin says but Alex stops her.   
"Are you sure she wants to be talked to?"  
"Even if she doesn't want to talk I have to make sure she's not doing something stupid, something she was doing had to make that conversation happen"  
"Just, don't get punched in the face okay?" Alex smiles sadly.   
Tobin nods and kisses Alex, slowly pulling away and knocking on Kelleys door. 

////

"Go the fuck away", Kelley snears, not caring who it is.   
"It's Tobin"  
"I don't care"   
Tobin says as she opens the door, "Yeah well I do"  
"What the fuck Tobin?" Kelley yells.   
"I'm not going to ignore the fact that my best friend is so obviously hurting. Now tell me what the hell is wrong", Tobin says as she sits down in desk of the room.   
Kelley is silent as she stares out of the window.   
"Kelley-"  
"No, I don't want to get lectured again okay? I don't want you to talk down on me or tell me I need to work things out"  
"I'm not going to lecture you Kels-"  
Kelley scoffs, "That's what Hope said"  
"IM NOT HOPE", Tobin yells, throwing Kelley off guard, "I'm your best friend! Your rock! A shoulder to fucking lean on when you need it! I'm not here to lecture you, I'm not here to talk down on you, I'm here to listen. Now there is something seriously fucked up going on with you Kelley, you've never been like this and you've never talked to Hope the way you just did. So I need you to tell me what's going on with my best friend before this becomes an even bigger issue"

Kelley is silent, she's never seen Tobin yell like this. Not when she's not hurting about Lauren. She wants to tell Tobin everything that's been happening with her, but she feels like she'd be bothering Tobin with it. She felt like she was bothering Hope with it, that's why she doesn't want to tell her. And she knows she fucked up, it's only been a couple minutes and she already misses her girlfriend like hell. 

"I fucked up Toby", she manages to choke out as sobs break through her body, "I fucked up so bad. I didn't mean to yell at her like that, I thought I knew what I was talking about but I don't. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to talk about this and it makes me so angry and I just-"  
Tobin hushes her, pulling her into her arms and rubbing her back, "It's okay, you can work it out" 

They stay like that for a while, Kelley just crying into Tobin while she tries to comfort Kelley. Kelley starts calming down a little bit once she doesn't have anymore tears left, so she wipes her face and pulls away from Tobin. 

"The day after we got here Hope took me up to the top of the building as a surprise. She just wanted me to see the view and it was great and romantic but it just felt so normal. Like there wasn't anything going on outside the base and we weren't fighting for each and every day. So I cried, I cried and ranted to her and she held me and told me it was going to be okay. Because that's what you do when your girlfriend is upset, but I'm just so tired of being told it's okay when it's not. And Hope just keeps saying the same thing over and over again and I guess I just got tired of it"  
"And did you tell her that?"  
"Yeah, but she didn't know what to say"  
Tobin nods slowly, "You still haven't told me what's been actually bothering you"

Kelley sighs, standing from the bed and taking a deep breath, "This war, it's taking a toll on me. Hope and I were happy together when it started, I mean I had my days where I just didn't want to do anything but she got me through it. We would be married by now if the war hadn't started. And I'm so tired of fighting and being scared of losing her. I don't know what I would do if I did lose her, and if she lost me, I don't even want to think about what she would be like"  
"Kelley, this life is shit. It's all shit but surviving is all we can do right now. I understand how you're feeling okay? If something happened to Alex id lose my mind-"  
"You haven't been with her for nine years", Kelley snaps.   
Tobin scoffs, standing and moving so she directly in front of Kelley, "And that makes you special?"  
Kelley gulps, trying to gain her posture back, "Well, no but-"  
"Listen to me very carefully O'Hara", she nods furiously, "I understand where your pain is coming from. When Lauren died I wanted nothing but to give up, but I got through it for her. This war is ending soon, and we're gonna be the cause of that"  
"I don't want to fight Tobin, I don't want to be here anymore", Kelley whispers.   
She watches something shift in Tobin and she becomes slightly terrified of the look in her eyes. 

"So what, you're just gonna give up? You're gonna throw your life away because of some stupid war? You're gonna give up on Hope, on me, on everyone?"  
Tobin voice starts getting louder, throwing Kelley even more off guard, "No that's not what I meant"  
"Then what did you mean? Huh? There's a roof on this building, there's guns in the armory, and I'm sure you could find some rope or some pills around here somewhere. I know exactly what you mean Kelley. And if you think I'm gonna let you think about something like that, you're wrong. You're my best friend, I'm not gonna lose you, not now and not ever. Together until the day we die. I'm sure you promised Hope the same thing. But we're ending this war, and what you're telling me right now is that you don't want to fight for the things you love anymore"  
"Of course I want to fight-"  
"That's not what you're telling me right now", Tobin whispers. 

Tobin is right. Kelley knows it. She doesn't want to fight, or be here. But there's still a soldier left in Kelley, she can feel it. This isn't how she's supposed to be getting past her problems but she's starting to understand why everyone keeps saying its war. It's war because you have to fight, it's war because you have to survive, it's war because you're scared for every new day that comes and that's just how it is. But she has to fight, she has to fight for Hope, for Tobin, for everyone around her. But she has to fight for herself first, she has to fight for the fun, crazy, loud Kelley she was before she stopped caring. 

"Go get your girl back Kelley", Tobin says firmly, turning on her heels and leaving the room. 

One last tear rolls down Kelleys cheek before she knows what she has to do. 

////

"That is so not how you handle a suicidal situation Tobin!"   
"It's how you handle it with Kelley though! She's tough, it's taken seven years for it all to catch up to her. I've seen soldiers give up a month into training because it's too much. Both of us we're just like them when we first started out but we're tough and we got through it. Kelleys a natural born soldier, she doesn't give up easily on the things she loves and cares about. I'm keeping a close eye on her, and if she does try anything she's gonna have to get some actual help"  
Alex sighs, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion, "Well at least you got her to admit she doesn't actually want to give up"  
Tobin sighs also, falling on her back next to Alex, "She's been my best friend for eight years, I can see past all the walls she's built up"  
"Hopefully she doesn't actually try anything, I'd miss her", Alex whispers, cuddling up next to Tobin.   
Tobin smirk, "Me too Baby Horse"  
"NO"  
Tobin just laughs, pulling Alex closer to her and finally closing her eyes. 

////

Kelley quietly opens the doors to the roof, her eyes finding Hope leaning against the edge of the banister. She smiles sadly to herself, seeing Hopes slumped posture compared to her usual high and mighty atmosphere. She hates to be the cause of it, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt Hope but that didn't seem to work. 

She walks over to the edge, making sure to put distance between them. She knows Hope can see her, but stays silent as she tries to find the right words. 

"I'm not going to apologize", she says finally, watching Hope stiffen next to her, "I didn't mean what I said"  
Hope scoffs, "Sure"  
"Okay I did mean it, it just came out wrong", Kelley takes a deep breath to control herself, "I meant it when I said I don't want to be treated like a child. I was just tired of being told that it's okay and that it's going to be okay when you and I both know that's not the case"   
Hope hangs her head, "I know I'm sorry-"  
"No, I'm not done", Kelley states firmly, facing Hope and squaring her shoulders, "I'm a soldier, I fight for the things I love. And I love you, more than anything in this world. You're the one who was there for me when i got injured playing club, you were the one who got me through the beginning of the war, you were the one who got me through all the hard times after I finally started fighting. I don't like this situation, nobody does and it's taken seven years for it all to come crashing down on my shoulders. I know I couldn't just tell you to tell me it's not okay, you're my girlfriend and you usually do the opposite. But I needed help coming to terms with how shitty this war actually is. Tobin told me that we fight for the things we love and that's why I'm going to help end this war. I'm going to end it so we can finally get married, so we can get an apartment together and just be happy. We can watch the world grow and build itself again, I just want to be with you through it all" 

Hope stares intensely at her, still not saying anything, "I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm feeling suicidal right now. And I know that's the last thing we all need but it's how I feel and I want to get through it. I need to know you'll always be there for me, cause it's gonna be a long fight"  
Hope frowns, "Baby I'm here for you no matter what, you don't have to ask me to. And I'm sorry I wasn't understanding what you needed to be told, I just hate seeing you so upset"   
Kelley laughs nervously, still not sure if she should get closer to Hope, "I'm sorry for getting angry and yelling, I thought I knew what I was doing and I just ended up hurting you"  
Hope chuckles, "We're a couple Kelley, we're gonna fight. No ones perfect" 

They stand there in an awkward silence, both of them waiting for the other to say something. 

"Can I kiss you?" Kelley blurts out, her freckles doing a bad job of hiding her blush.   
"Are we going back to our first year of dating now?"  
Kelley rolls her eyes, pulling Hope closer to her and mumbling against her lips, "Shut up"   
"Make me"  
"Gladly", she presses their lips together softly, still not sure if Hope was joking.   
Hopes arms find their way around Kelleys hips, pulling her closer. 

"Make up sex?" Kelley smirks against Hopes lips.   
"Who said I forgave you?"   
Kelleys heart sinks and she pulls away nervously, "i mean- I just thought. I don't know you, I mean I-"  
"I'm kidding, Kels. If anyone is supposed to apologize it should be me", Hope smiles dorkishly at Kelley.   
"How about we both apologize and call it even?"  
"Fine by me"  
"Okay on three"  
"Seriously Kelley?"  
"Hush", Kelley glares playfully, "Okay, one, two, three"  
"I'm sorry", they say at the same time and smile.   
"Good, now let's go, I've got some good ideas for making up to you"  
"Kelley if you don't shut up I'm gonna take you right here, on these stairs", Hope whines as Kelley pulls her down the stairs. 

////

Early morning light filters into Tobins room, slowly waking her up. She feels a heavy weight on her hips and smiles when she sees Alex asleep ontop of her. 

Tobin is still afraid of the feelings Alex gives her. She hasn't felt safe and at home in forever, she doesn't want anything to happen to make it all go away again. She's only known Alex for what, a week by now, but she's sure she already loves her. Maybe it's just because Tobin falls fast, and she definitely falls hard, but what she feels for Alex is different than what she felt for anyone before the war. 

She runs her hands lazily through her girlfriends hair, managing to wake her up. Alex stirs a little, moving her head so she's looking directly at Tobin. 

"Good morning sleepy head", Tobin smiles, softly rubbing her thumb over Alex's cheek.   
"Morning babe", Alex rasps out and stretches her arms, crawling up Tobins body until their lips are inches apart.   
"Oh I could so get used to this", Tobin whispers as she leans forward, connecting their lips and sending fireworks through her body. 

Their lips move in sync, already knowing each other. Tobin pulls on Alex's lip a little, earning her a low moan. She smirks, slowly trailing her hands down Alex's body. She rubs her hip bones with her thumbs, light dragging her nails over her stomach. 

"Quit teasing me god dammit"   
Tobin laughs, moving her attention to Alex's neck.   
"And don't even think about leaving a mark", Alex moves her neck so Tobin has more access, moving one of her hands to the back of Tobins neck. 

She feels Alex scratch lightly at her hairline and she hums at the feeling. Tobin quickly flips their positions, laughing when Alex gasps. She hovers over Alex, content with just looking into those ocean blue eyes. Alex starts playing with her hair more, both of them just looking and taking each other in. 

"I'm so glad I get to call you my girlfriend in this shit hole world", Alex whispers, lightly tracing Tobins jawline.   
"Me too", Tobin plants one last kiss on Alex's lip before rolling off the bed and stretching.   
"Nooo", Alex whines and reaches out for Tobin.   
"Come on Lex, we have a world to save", Tobin surprised herself with the nickname but shakes it off when Alex smiles at her.   
"Fine, but only because I have a super cute girlfriend to save it with"   
"Sap"  
"Dork"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol look! more plot instead of more sideline stories! i promise the action and drama will be coming soon, ya girl just needs to plan it out.
> 
> also, 4,000 hits?? thank y'all so much, this is honestly so fun to do


	11. Glass Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, oops? So sorry I didn't update sooner, school work and soccer kind of caught up to me and I had to get my life together really quick. So here's a short but really  
> informative chapter to make up for it! I'm also planning a Krashlyn chapter soon since I realized I haven't done that yet. 
> 
> Thank y'all for all of the kudos and comments, keep em coming for me!

Jill takes the group out of the building and down a long walkway when everyone finally shows up. Tobin watches all the large buildings pass by her as the walkway starts to slant down. She can see large double doors built into the concrete of the walkway, going even farther down into the ground. When they walk through the doors Tobins breath is taken away. The room behind the doors is large and circular, stretching up at least four stories. In the middle of the room is three stories of computers and work stations, illuminating the room a deep blue. Large glass structures circle the stations, creating a hall that goes around the entire circle. 

The group follows Jill to the right of the circle until they're on the other side, going through another set of double doors and down a long concrete hall. It's dimly lit, so Tobin can't see the large vault at the end of the hall or the guard next to it. 

Jill starts whispering to the guard so Tobin takes the chance to talk to Alex.

"This place is pretty impressive right?"  
"Yeah, I didn't think we'd have the materials to do something like those glass things"  
"You should see the command center in FIFA", Tobin smiles.  
"I guess you'll have to show me then", Alex whispers and smirks.  
"Oh my god ew", Ashlyn groans causing Tobin to laugh.

"This way ladies", Jill calls out and the group starts moving again. 

The large vault opens and they walk through, Tobin's breath leaving her body again. 

"So this is the main command center", Jill explains as the group stops. 

The ceiling is even higher than the other room, a large stone structure takes up the back wall with the Sentinel emblem near the top. Blue lights glow behind it, enhancing the design of carvings on the stone. The room kind of reminds Tobin of the dining hall in Harry Potter, the stone replacing the windows and computers with workers walking around take up the open space in front of the structure. Two sets of stairs are placed on the left and right walls, going up to a second story with what looks like data cashes and shelves. Underneath the second story walls are four black doors with small windows at the top, dim light streaming through them. 

Tobin turns to Alex, her heartbeat picking up at the sight. The blue from the stone is glowing onto Alex, turning the blue in her eyes even darker and contouring her face in all the right places. Her mouth is slightly open, gaping in awe at the room in front of her. 

Alex turns her head to Tobin, smiling when she catches the tan soldier staring at her. It sends butterflies through Tobin's stomach. 

"You all will be in our special ops room, anything you need for this mission will be in there but if you need anything else just ask anyone out here", Jill explains as she leads the group to the right side of the room, taking them through the second door from the entrance. The room is decently sized, a large table taking up most of the space and a large screen taking up most of the wall. The group spreads around the table, Jill and Tobin taking the head.

Jill taps the corner of the table, causing the touch screen to illuminate and project into the air above the table. Tobin laughs when she watches Alex's reaction, her eyes blowing wide. 

"Alright so, there were four field soldiers who went in. We had communications set up a couple miles out from the facility, they went out before the field did. We don't know anything about the situation so we can't really help you there. All the info you need are in these files", Jill taps on her side of the screen until the projection shows maps and streaming data, "Tobin will be controlling the field, Ali will be controlling the tech. Dawn and I will be in the main hall if you need us"

////

Tobin is silent as she watches the data roll past the screen. She leans back into her chair, going over the scenarios in her head. 

The facility was set up on the outskirts of a desert, it was a large ten story building with extensions on the north and west side. The entire thing was surrounded by a large fence, there was no way anyone could get in without some kind of underground tunnel being there. 

The communications was set up a couple miles east in a tiny forest, they were set up in a military van and covered it with tarp and shrub. They had all of their data blocking and stealth firewalls up, there was no way anyone could have found them without physically taking the tarp off and seeing them.

And then there was the field men. Three women and one man, all of them top of the class military agents. They were almost as decorated as Tobin, there was no way they could've just slipped up. 

The thing that threw Tobin off the most was the actual mission. Atlas was holding six of Sentinels soldiers, all of which were new to the program. Two of them were from Dash, three were from Reign, and one was from Pride. 

Nothing seemed off about them, besides the fact that they were new. But the field and tech were experienced veterens, unless Atlas knew about the mission it should have gone perfectly. 

None of it made sense to Tobin, not the location, not the mission, not the team, none of it. It was unsettling. 

////

"Tobin?"  
Silence.  
"Tobin? Dude come on"  
"What is she even thinking about?"  
"Will you two hush? She's going over the case in her head, just leave her alone for a while she'll figure it out"

////

"Ashlyn", Tobin says, her voice scaring everyone awake.  
"I'm up!" Ashlyn yells, rubbing her eyes and trying to focus on Tobin.  
Tobin rolls her eyes, focusing back onto her data, "What can you tell me about the facility?"

Ashlyn taps a little on the screen, pulling up a large file with hundreds of attachments, "Uh, it was used for a lot of different reasons. The desert was used for military training, some floors were used for scientific experiments, some was used for government facilitation, war prisoners, everything really"  
"Tell me about the captured soldiers"   
"There's not much about them, they'd only been in the Sentinel program for a month. They didn't have a lot of training, they were civilian before and just getting by"  
"Perfect targets", Alex states.  
"Do we know anything about their labs and experiments?"  
"Just give me one second", Ashlyn mumbles as her hands fly across the screen, "Oh"  
"What?"  
"That, that is not good", Ashlyn says, backing away from the screen so Tobin can see.   
"What are you-", Tobin cuts herself off as she looks at the screen.

Her stomach drops as she grazes over the screen. Hundreds of photos of tortured test subjects fill the screen. She scrolls through the photos, seeing torn bodies, decapitated soldiers that don't even look human, hundreds of injection photos and their results. The pictures show soldiers in cells, being held down onto tables by straps and fighting to get out of the glass. There's also a video attachment, Tobin hesitantly taps on it and puts it on the big screen. 

"Holy shit"

It was obviously filmed by one of the scientist, a soldier is behind the glass but their skin is rotted and they're pounding against the glass senselessly. Tobin can't even tell if it was a man or a woman, an uneasy feeling settles in her stomach as she continues watching the video. 

A door inside the cell opens and another prisoner is thrown in, the thing pounding on the glass stops and turns its attention to the prisoner. The prisoner starts screaming as the thing lunges at it, ripping out its throat and wailing loudly. Tobin flinches at the sight, feeling Alex standing next to her.

The camera is set down on a table and a scientist in protective gear comes into view. 

"Atlas presents to you, the Exo Zombie Soldier!"

////

"Did you not read the files? Zombies, Jill! You can't just ignore that", Ashlyn yells across the conference table.   
"Of course we read them, we just needed you to put all the pieces together"  
"Put the pieces-", Ashlyn gives Jill an incredulous look, "There's zombies running around America during a war and you didn't tell us? How long have you known about this situation?"  
"We knew before we sent our men in, we sent them so they could stop the operations but we're guessing the zombies got to them first"  
"Uh, yeah! No shit! Zombies weren't here before the war started and you expect soldiers to know how to handle it?"  
Ashlyn is starting to get angry so Tobin puts a hand on her shoulder, turning to Jill, "Please tell me they knew about it"  
"They did, it was a volunteer mission"

Tobin sighs, running a hand through her hair. She had to tell everyone else, this wasn't the kind of thing you don't tell everyone. They deserved to know, especially since it's made the war ten times as harder now. 

"Tobin, no", Ali says to the look on Tobins face.  
"They have to know, they can't just keep training and fighting without knowing that there's zombies out there", Tobin snaps.  
"We don't even know if they got the zombie to survive, we need to come up with a plan and attack first before we tell anyone anything"  
Tobin shakes her head and breathes out heavily, turning to Jill, "How long do we have?"  
"Four days"

////

"This is impossible, utterly impossible"  
"That's what we all said when the war started in the first place"  
"No, I mean what Atlas did", Alex explains, pulling up files from the stream, "There is no way in hell they could've gotten the materials to do this. I mean they have all of their calculations and data here. These chemicals, they didn't even exist before this started. I know there were diseases that had zombie like effects to the brain but this, this isn't right"  
"Shit, you're right", Lindsey says suddenly. Alex hadn't heard any of the younger girls talk the until now.   
"Alex, do you remember when we were with Atlas and they did that experiment-", Mallory starts but Alex cuts her off at the memory.  
"No, there's no way that could be connected to this"  
"Just think about it, they took blood samples and countless of physical tests. They took soldiers into labs and never came out"  
"It could've been testing something else"  
"It would be impossible anyways, the logs in this data only date back to a couple months ago", Morgan states.  
"They created a fucking war zombie in less than a year", Ashlyn whispers and slumps in her chair.   
"Okay enough!" Tobins voice startles Alex, silencing the room.  
"I understand that this seems impossible and ridiculous but it's real and it's happening. As of now, we're done reviewing the labs and all the data. We start planning our attack now, and we start planning how we're gonna wipe Atlas off of the face of this planet"

Everyone is silent, not used to Tobin taking control. Alex definitely wasn't used to it yet, Tobin wasn't the slightest of angry when they first met and Alex had a gun to her face. 

"You got it Cap", Ali says hesitantly, grabbing Ashlyn's hand and pulling her to the other side of the table. 

They all split up into their respective teams, Tobin separating herself from the group to think. She keeps scrolling through the data, every single file makes her want to throw up. The things Atlas did were horrible, she didn't want to think about how it felt to be in one of the prisoners positions. 

"Babe?" Alex's voice and hand on her lower back pulls her away from her searching.   
"Yeah?"  
"Ali wants to know if we should be out training, she said she can handle all the tactical things and meet up later to agree on a plan", she whispers softly, you're grateful she understands your stress.   
"Yeah, sure, just let me save some stuff really quick"   
Tobin moves the files she was looking at into a folder and exits out of everything, standing up and stretching her arms. 

She sends Ali a look, somewhat apologetic but she's sure it didn't come out like that. Alex pulls her out of the room, sliding her hand into Tobin's. They walk into the large room, sending a wave to Jill and Dawn and then walking to the vault. Tobin drags behind Alex, tired from working and all the information she's been told today. 

She still can't believe that zombies are an actual threat now. Never in a million years would she have thought about it, it was always just some fictional thing before the war. Then again, she thought a lot of things couldn't happen before the war. She never thought she was going to loser Lauren, she never thought Amy would disappear, or that she'd meet Alex. But things happen for a reason, and God obviously had a plan for Tobin.

Alex and Tobin walk hand in hand, quietly down the hall, noticing the guard is gone now. Tobin sighs and moves her arm around Alex's waist and pulls her closer, leaning her head against her shoulder as they walk. Alex seems to notice that something is wrong and she stops, facing Tobin.

"What's wrong?"  
"I don't know", Tobin says as she rubs her forehead.   
"Hey, look at me", Alex lifts her chin up with one finger, "This whole zombie thing is just a minor setback. Everything is gonna be okay and we're gonna figure it all out. In four days we'll saving the world from another massacre and it'll be one more step to ending the war. And after we end it, we can settle down and go live on the beach together or something"  
Tobin smiles, thanking God that Alex was in her life now, "I'm so glad I'm stubborn"

Alex chuckles, pulling Tobin closer and kissing her slowly. Tobin sighs, realizing how much she already missed kissing Alex. She wraps her arms around Alex, enjoying being with her for now. She gets lost in the feeling of Alex's lips, just thinking about it makes her knees feel like jelly. 

"We'll get through this together. Just know I love-", Alex stops abrubtly, Tobin growing curious. Her stomach churns at the thought that Alex already loves her. It almost made her nervous, she wasn't going to deny she felt something more than just a crush on Alex, but love? It was an option, no, it was the biggest probability of how she felt but she didn't want to love Alex with this stupid war threatening to tear them apart somehow.

"Just know I love being here with you and if everything works out I'll love it even more", Alex smiles sadly and Tobin smiles back, still contemplating if that's what she was actually gonna say. 

She plants a lingering kiss on Alex's lips, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the tunnel and into the computer room. 

////

So Alex totally almost said she loves Tobin. She didn't even mean to almost say it, it felt natural to slip off her tongue. She knew Tobin was suspicious, the look on her face proved it. 

They've only been together a couple days and Alex definitely didn't want to rush anything onto  
Tobin. But God did she want to tell her how  
much she means to her, and she wanted to show her too but she knows her boundaries. 

And this mission was just around the corner,  
a super dangerous one what with how much Tobin was stressing. She already knows Tobin isn't one to stress or get upset, hell she didn't even flinch when Alex held a gun to her face. Or maybe that was just experience. 

Whatever it was, Alex knew that this mission was a big one and they were eliminating a huge threat to the war. Who the hell even thinks about creating zombie soldiers? Are they asking for a death threat? Alex just sighs heavily, marching up the stairs after Tobin. 

"Hey Lex can you tell Ali to just go ahead and take a break, I'm tired and need a quick nap and I'd feel really bad if we got to sleep while they worked", Tobin says as she unlocks the door to the room.   
"Yeah sure", Alex pulls out the phone Sentinel gave her when she was put in the program  
and texts Ali.   
Her reply is almost instant, "She said the younger ones wanted to stay and keep working while her and Ashlyn went to the pit, whatever that is"  
Alex hears Tobin laugh abruptly, "The pit is just a big amphitheater that people go to chill out in. There's a soccer field built there instead of a stage, Ashlyn is probably dying to get her hands on a ball or something"  
Alex raises and eyebrows, "Don't you mean her feet on a ball?"  
"Oh no, Ashlyn was a keeper for Pride back then. She worked with Hope, that's kind of how we're all connected besides me and Kelley" 

Alex lays in the bed with Tobin, resting her head on her shoulder, "How did you and Kelley meet?"  
"We knew each other a year before the war. We played club soccer and met at a game, we both got kind of injured and started talking while the trainers were patching us back up. We actually lived together a couple months before she met Hope, it was all pretty crazy back then", Alex feels Tobin smile as she talks, Alex is glad Tobin is opening up a little. 

She contemplates asking about Lauren and Amy, but it's a pretty heavy question and she doesn't want to upset Tobin even more. Besides, she can already feel her breathing evening out now. 

"When do you wanna wake back up?" Alex asks softly, trying not to wake Tobin back up.   
"When someone comes pounding at the door", Tobin mumbles, wrapping both of her arms around Alex and pulling her closer. 

Alex just smiles, gladly moving closer to Tobin and pressing a light kiss to part of her exposed shoulder. Tobin smiles against her forehead, she feels her kiss it softly. She smiles even bigger, sighing contently and closing her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up; becauseizzy.tumblr.com & holy.heath on instagram


	12. Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO SORRY I HAVENT UPDATED SCHOOL  
> CAUGHT UP TO ME AGAIN

"Ashlyn come on, get your dumb gloves on"  
She gasps dramatically, pretending to be offended, "Did you just call my keeper gloves dumb?"  
"Not this again", Ali groans.   
"Honestly babe, the keeper is one of the most  
important positions on the team. If there weren't keepers the scores would be a lot higher and soccer would just be boring"  
"I can't believe you're still telling me this"  
"Well, if you didn't call my gloves dumb I wouldn't have to explain it to you", Ashlyn says, stepping closer to Ali and lowering her voice.   
"Hmm, well maybe if you weren't such a slow poke I wouldn't have to complain", Ali lowers her voice also, turning her attention to Ashlyn's lips.   
Ashlyn laughs, pressing a loving kiss to Ali's lips and humming contently, "Alright Princess, let's do this"

Ali smiles happily at Ashlyn, snatching the ball  
playfully from her and stepping away from the goal. Ashlyn steps in the goal, rubbing her gloves together before nodding to Ali. Ali sets the ball on the PK mark, taking a deep breath before running up and kicking her leg back. She watches the ball hit her foot, looking up and seeing Ashlyn with a smirk on her face and the ball in her hands. 

"Too easy baby"  
"Oh shut up, I'm warming up" 

Ali sticks her tongue out at Ash, trotting back to the PK mark and placing her hands on her hips. She trails her gaze over the amphitheater, smiling as she sees the pink tint in the sky and the sounds of the base in the back of her mind. She hasn't felt this content in a while, when she got locked in that closet with Ashlyn she thought everything was over. She hadn't ever bled so much, or cried so much. She thought she had lost Ashlyn when she got caught under those shelves, and if Sydney hadn't gotten there earlier Ashlyn probably wouldn't have made it. Ali doesn't know what she'd do without Ash, they'd been married for so long she's so used to having her everyday. She hates it when they're separated by missions, she hates being in this war with her but shit happens. She'd stand by Ashlyn no matter what happened, she couldn't explain her love for the ex goal keeper to anyone, it was just so strong that even she had a hard time comprehending it. There were days she felt like she loved her so much that it was just an illusion, that she didn't actually love Ashlyn and she just didn't want to be alone in the world with a war going on. 

But then she woke up in the morning to her beautiful voice, the morning light hitting her face perfectly and kissing her, everything about her was perfect and Ali couldn't ask for anyone better. 

"Ali?"   
Ashlyn's voice brings her back to reality, noticing the small smile on her face.   
"What?"  
"What are you thinking about?" She asks with the smile still plastered on her face.   
"You", Ali says plainly before running into Ashlyn's arms and kissing her with everything she had. It threw Ashlyn off guard, she almost falls back but she still catches Ali, smiling as she kisses Ali with just as much love.   
"I love you so much baby", Ali whispers against Ash's lips.   
"I love you more", Ashlyn whispers back, pressing her lips against her wife's lips again. She was kind of glad they were injured now. 

////

"Tobin"   
"No"  
"Tobin get up"   
"I don't want to"   
"Carli needs us at the field"  
"I don't care where she needs us, I want to sleep"   
"I promise if you get up you'll be rewarded later"

Tobin jolts up at this, rubbing her eyes and standing up a little too quickly. Alex laughs at her, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the building. 

"Wait, we need our gear"  
"Carli said she had some new gear for us, now hurry up so she doesn't get angry"

Tobin groans, dragging behind Alex and pouting slightly. She was actually sleeping well, there wasn't any nightmares bothering her and she kind of felt refreshed. But of course she wouldn't get that, she never really does. 

Alex takes her down the walkway to the command center, but turns right at a break in the concrete. She's taken through a tight alley way that opens up into a large warehouse like building. The ground floor is fairly small, and drops into a low dirt covered ground with a large covered structure. It's dimly lit, the only light coming from the holes in the ceiling. There's skating tunnel on the sides of the ground floor, but are made of concrete instead of wood and have lights on all four sides. 

"What is this?"  
"I don't know, Carli just said meet her here"   
"Tobin, Alex!"  
Carlis booming voice scared the duo, causing them to turn around. Dawn is with her, along with Becky and Jill.   
"Uh hey Caps, Dawn, Jill", Tobin says and nods to each one of them.   
"Hi Tobin", Dawn and Jill wave, looking to Carli expectantly.   
"Right so, I don't doubt your skills Tobin, but Alex we've never seen you on a stealth mission so we're gonna put you through a test course. It'll contain different kinds of stealth tactics, if you get confused or don't know what to do, just tell us. Don't be afraid to not know, we want you to be the best you can be"  
"It'll be fun, don't worry", Tobin assures Alex when she feels like tense a little.   
"We'll get you both geared up, just follow Dawn and Jill"

Alex and Tobin fall into step behind the group, following them back into the alleyway and into another one on the other side of the concrete. It's slightly larger, two metal doors are placed on either side a couple yards into the alleyway. 

Dawn opened the door on the right with a key card, opening it for everyone and stepping inside last. The lights are off and Tobin can't really see anything, but when the lights do come on she's blown away. There's two stealth suits hanging up behind thick glass, one glowing green and one glowing pink. There's two weapons racks on opposite sides of the room. 

"When did this happen", Tobin gapes at the suits, her eyes trailing over the black leather. Both look the same, except the pink one looks slightly larger. 

"Both of these suits are equipped with top of the class stealth design. The boots have sound proof Exo Ability, the leather is designed so it doesn't make any rubbing sounds when you walk, and there's shoulder, elbow, knee, and back covers if you fall. There's hip and thigh holsters, plus a lock for your larger rifle on your back. We took the Exo Skeleton off of the arms and the legs so you can move around easier, and you can decide if you want a full head helmet"

Tobin had to give them credit, it was as simple as they could get with all the technology. The upper body part was mostly dry fit, only the gloves and part of the torso was leather. Tobin couldn't wait to get inside of it. 

////

Alex was surprised when she saw the stealth suits, not even Atlas had suits like it. It fit her perfectly, she could move everything without any restriction and she was even quieter with the Exo Ability. 

And Tobin looked good in hers. Like, really good. It fit her in all the right places, her arm and thigh muscles slightly popping out of the material. It made Alex want to rip the suit off of her and touch her everywhere, but she couldn't exactly do that she was kind of just breathing a little heavy while Carli told her what to do. 

She had chosen to get a full head helmet, it was just simple matte paint with night lenses and long vertical slits for breathing. 

"Alright Alex, just so I know the night and thermal vision on your lenses work I need you to look at the lights as I call them out"  
Alex nods, wriggling her fingers in the leather gloves and looking at whichever light Carli named off. The lenses switched between thermal, normal, and night vision each time she switched lights. She was going to have to ask how to change that when she needed it. 

"Alright so the helmet has a brain trigger that kind of reads your mind when you want to change visions. So we're gonna darken the room more and see if it works"

Or not. 

The room darkens even more and Alex unconsciously thinks about needing it to be brighter and the night vision comes on. She flinches a little, she's never seen this kind of technology and it kind of intimidated her. She could only imagine what other technology Sentinel has. 

////

Tobin flies through the helmet process easily, deciding to just keep her field helmet so she could take it off and on easily. She watches Alex do her helmet test, she laughs when Alex flinches at the brain trigger technology. She expected her to, Atlas probably doesn't have much of a stealthy program. 

"Are you ready to start the field test?" Becky asks her. She pushes her helmet button and the face mask shifts over and locks into place, letting Becky know she was ready.   
"You may begin" 

Tobins brain switches to her battle mode and she sprints up the slant on the pipe, easily grabbing onto the ledge and hoisting herself up. She doesn't have to think about the drop to the dirt level, it just comes natural to her. But it's lower than she thinks so she rolls onto her shoulder quickly and jumps back up, sprinting silently through a tight space between the structure. There's a dead end in front of her, she already knows she's going to have to climb up to the next level so she jumps up on the wall, kicking off of it and onto the other one until she's wedged between the two walls. She grabs onto the ledge of the next level and crawls up, quickly getting back up and checking the new area. There's torn tarp hanging loosely on beams, separating herself from the other side of the area. She switches to thermal vision and sees that there's two guards on the other side of the tarp, both of them with their backs to her. She smirks behind her mask, swiftly running through the tarp and taking down the first guard with a non lethal tactic. When she grabs the first one the second notices and she throws the first one under her arm, kicking her legs and up and wrapping her feet around the other guards throat. She chokes him until he's unconscious but not dead and pops back up, jumping over the ledge in front of her and grabbing onto a crack in the wall in front of her. She travels down the wall like that, finding herself on a makeshift AC unit. She knows she's gonna have to shimmy around the corner and quickly steps on the ledge. She moves around the corner, jumping into the window and landing in a crouch. The room is pitch black so she switches to night vision, seeing a door on the other side of the room and beams near the ceiling. She's about to walk towards the door but it opens suddenly and bright light comes pouring. If she didn't have fast reflexes to jump up onto the beams she would've gotten caught. She waits until the guard it right underneath her to shift down, her legs locked together so she's hanging on the beams still. She lifts the guard up slightly, putting pressure on his neck until he goes limp and drops him along with herself. She rolls back up and walks through the door, met with another wall and a corner. She narrows her eyes and listens carefully, noticing the mechanical sound of a moving camera after a while. 

"For the love of God", she says to herself and pulls out her pistol, leaning her back against the wall and peaking around the corner. There's a door, and above it is a slowly moving camera. It's not protected, thank god, so she quickly shoots out the lights and moves around the corner. When she reaches the door she jumps up and grabs the camera, ripping it off the wall and crumbling it. 

"Unnecessary Tobin", Carlis voice cracks through her ear piece.   
"Worth it", she says back, smirking and opening the door quietly. 

////

Alex had gotten through the climbing and the dropping perfectly fine, but when she got to the tarp she had no idea what to do and just ran through them. Fortunately for her she had quick reflexes and took the two guards down, but not without Carli telling her what she should've done. She had hung her head for a second, abut Becky reassured her that they'd work on it and she'd be an expert in no time. 

Now she was past the camera and in a small room that yelled loud at her. There were microphones hanging from the ceiling along with strategically placed chains. Broken glass was spread out on the floor, and the walls were definitely made with sound detector material. Even the floor was made of metal grating so she was sure it was gonna make some kind of noise. 

But Alex just smiled, running off of the platform on stepping directly onto the glass, but she doesn't make a sound. She jumps onto the metal platform, brushing past the chains and microphones swiftly and sprinting into the wooden door. 

"Holy shit how did you just do that", Carli says and Alex laughs.   
"I had to learn to escape a lot of rubble when I was with Atlas, taught myself all the right footing"  
"Impressive, get through this next area and you'll be done" 

Alex nods to herself, opening the wooden door and finding herself in another dark room. There's a large block in the center and a door to the left. She knows better now than to just walk towards it so she flips to her thermal vision and moves the block, waiting for someone to walk through the door. 

After a few silent moments someone finally does and Alex waits for them to get to the other door to attack. She's about to do a non lethal on them, but she twist and duck from under her, forcing her hands behind her back and pulling her into a headlock. She internally panics for a second, but quickly grabs their arms and flings them over her shoulder driving her knee to one side of their head and keeping their arms locked. They fight back almost instantly, kicking their back off the ground and wrapping their legs around Alex's throat and slamming her down onto the hard ground. The air leaves her lungs for a second and she gasps. 

"Shit", she groans and pulls against her attackers legs, twisting her body so she can get a headlock on them too. Once she applies pressure she feels them put some too, and there's no way she can get out of this unless they back off. She can feel herself losing strength and consciousness, and soon enough everything turns black.


	13. You Idiots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the person who wanted more Mal, this is for you

"What the hell were you thinking? I could have seriously hurt her!"  
"We know you wouldn't have, you never hurt anyone else during these tests"  
"Yeah, because they don't fight back"  
"We just wanted to see how you would react"  
"By throwing my girlfriend and I into the same room to fight each other?"

Alex stirs awake at the voice, instantly feeling a pain shoot up her back. She gasps and opens her eyes, grabbing the attention of everyone else in the room. Tobin slides next to her, helping her sit up. 

"That was you I was fighting?" Alex asks.   
"Yeah, I've gotta say you've got some good skills"  
"Obviously not good enough", she mutters as she rubs the front of her neck.   
"You did well Alex, your little stunt in the sound room proved a lot", Jill says.   
"Complimenting her isn't gonna make us forget that you made us fight", Tobin snaps.   
Alex puts a hand on her knee, shaking her head when she looks at her.   
Tobin rolls her eyes but relaxes anyways, standing and pulling Alex up with her.

"We'll be getting dinner if you need us", Tobin whispers coldly, pulling Alex through the door and out of the training structure. She's silent as they walk through the alley, the low sun hitting Alex in the face and instantly heating her up in all the black she has on.   
"Do you wanna go back to the room and get changed?"

Alex nods her head, needing to get out of this outfit. She also wanted to take a shower and sleep forever, her back was killing her and it's a little hard to breath right now. She did have to admit that Tobin was a good fighter, she hadn't expected for a fight back and she liked getting caught off guard for a second. 

They walk silently up the stairs, neither one of them knowing what to say. Alex knows Tobin wouldn't have even thought about fighting her if she knew it was Alex, But she didn't know and Alex can't blame her for fighting back. Alex would have done the same thing. 

////

"Well we definitely pissed her off"  
"She'll get over it, she's Tobin"  
"Are you sure? Alex is pretty important to her, almost as much as Lauren-"  
"Becky"  
"Right, sorry"

Carli shakes her head and starts walking out of the training structure, Becky following closely behind her. Jill and Dawn had left earlier, leaving the two captains to discuss what Tobin and Alex had done. She was impressed with Alex, she had never seen someone get through the sound room that quickly and efficiently, besides Tobin of course. She was gonna have to teach Alex how to work with guards, well, Becky was going to have to. Carli was more concerned about Tobin and her shooting skills, it took her two hits to take out one of the lights when she can usually take two of them out with one bullet. She wasn't worried per say, she just wanted to get this mission over with. She had read all the files before Jill took the team into the command center, and everything about it made her feel uneasy. Zombies didn't even seem like a possibility, it just didn't even sound right. 

////

Tobin opens the door slowly, trudging into the room and starting to pull off her gear. She hears Alex close the door and walk into the bathroom, probably taking a shower. 

She feels horrible for hurting her, if she had known it was Alex she would have yelled at Carli sooner and there wouldn't be a giant bruise on Alex's throat. She can't even believe she fell for it, she knows Alex and how she feels. She should have known, but she didn't and that's what's pissing her off. 

"Tobin can you come here for a sec?" Alex groans and calls out, Tobin quickly pulls the pants on her gear off until she's only in spandex and a sports bra.   
She walks into the bathroom, flinching when she sees Alex leaning on the counter. There's already a large bruise on oher back and couple dotting her shoulders, Tobin feels like she could throw up at any second.   
"Can you help me out of this bra?"  
Tobin's blood runs cold, "Uh sure"

She carefully runs her hands up Alex's back, stretching the back of the material out as Alex does the front. Alex groans and Tobin panics, but she gives her a reassuring smile and pulls the bra off. Tobin is stunned for a second, she doesn't really know what to do besides stare at Alex. All she thinks of is how beautiful Alex is and how lucky she is to have her. 

"My eyes are up her babe", Alex whispers seductively, lifting Tobins chin and kissing her softly. Tobin sighs, moving her hands onto the counter and softly leaning against Alex as her arms move around her neck. Alex deepens the kiss, running her tongue along Tobin's lip and immediately gaining access. They fight for dominance, Tobin almost losing herself in the feel of Alex's lips but a groan stops her. 

"Shit I'm sorry did I hurt you?" Tobin pulls back and starts scanning Alex's body for any other bruises.   
Alex laughs, lifting Tobin's chin again and smiling, "I'm fine, just feeling a little sore"  
Tobin frowns with guilt, "I'm sorry, if I had known-"  
"Tobin, stop. You didn't know, I didn't know, it was a lesson learned. I'll be fine"  
"But I hurt you", Tobin chokes out, she doesn't even try to stop the tears that are coming now.   
"Babe", Alex frowns and pulls Tobin closer to her. 

Tobin only cries harder, burying her face into Alex's bare neck and wrapping her arms loosely around Alex's waist. She feels like she has to be careful with Alex now, she knows she's stronger and she knows she can really hurt her. But Alex is an adult, she's a soldier and she's strong, Tobin shouldn't have to treat her like a newborn. 

She cries for a little while, mostly from guilt but some of it is because of the stress that's been put on her. She feels bad for crying on Alex, but she feels hand stroking through her hair anyways. She's nothing but grateful for Alex, only God knows what her life would be like if Alex wasn't in it. She's been thinking about that a lot lately, how messed up her and her life would be. Alex was like her rock, she can't even believe how fast she fell for her. 

"I can practically hear the gears running in your head Tobs", Alex tries to joke and manages to get a little laugh out of Tobin, "Alright come on, I think we both need a nice hot shower"  
Tobin smiles at this, sniffling and letting Alex pull her into the shower. 

//// 

"I haven't run that hard since soccer camp", Mal gasps out between heavy breaths.   
"If you think that was bad, just wait", Crystal breathes out next to her.   
"Wonderful"

They had been running sprints and suicides since they got out of stretching, Mal wasn't prepared to be pushed this hard. She wasn't really prepared for anything but a light jog and a couple sprints, but no, she was proven totally wrong. Jill let them out a couple minutes ago but Mal was still breathing pretty hard, having to walk up the steps from the Pit wasn't helping her exhaustion. 

"Good work today ladies, I expect the same amount of energy tomorrow after lunch"  
Mal and Crystal groan, trudging slowly through the last set of stairs and sighing when they see the downhill slope to the cafeteria.   
"Do you think they made the Pit like this on purpose?"  
Crystal laughs, "Oh trust me, they did"

Mal laughed with her, falling easily into conversation with the short soldier. They've been like this ever since Mal joined security back at FIFA, Mal considered Crystal one of her closer friends now. Sure, she spoke to most of the younger girls but she spent the most time with Crystal. She was glad Carli had roomed them together, it probably would've been awkward with anyone else. 

When they enter the cafeteria Mal starts looking around for Alex and Christen, finding them both at a table together in a corner. She smiles as she watches her big sisters interacting happily with their girlfriends. Mal thought it was pretty funny that Alex managed to find a girlfriend during a war, but she was even more surprised that Christen even liked girls. After knowing her her whole life she thought she would've found out by now, Christen was probably just really good at hiding it. 

"I'm gonna go get us some seats before everyone starts piling in, can you get a tray for me?" Mal asks as she starts leaning towards Alex's direction.  
"Yeah sure, just wave when I get out of the line", Crystal walks off , leaving Mal to herself as she walks towards Alex. When she gets to the table she wraps her arms around Alex but is pushed off after she yells out.   
"Shit I'm sorry Lex!" Mal yells, seeing the look of pain on Alex's face.   
"It's fine Mal", Alex groans out as Tobin rubs her lower back.   
"Are you sure? What happened?" Mal asks, upset that her big sister was hurt.   
"Just something that went wrong during training", Alex smiles up at Mal but she can tell she's hiding something.   
Mal raises and eyebrows but sits down anyways, "Are you gonna be okay?"  
Alex laughs, slinging her arm over Mals shoulder and pulling her closer, "Yes you little monster, quit worrying so much"   
Mal laughs and gently hugs Alex back, doing her handshake with Christen when she lets go.   
"So how's training going?" Alex asks and everyone groans, "Okay, bad obviously"  
"You should've made us run more, last time I did suicides was back before the war", Christen groans as Julie laughs at her.   
"It's not that bad, you'll be used to it by the team we leave", Mal fake gags at the heart eyes Julie is giving Christen, causing Tobin and Alex to laugh.   
"When are we leaving by the way?" A voice causes Mal to jump, but she settles when she realizes it's just Crystal.   
"Maybe another week", Tobin says a little distantly but Mal barely notices it. 

But she does notice the look in Alex's eyes. It's distant and sad, she can't think of anything that could've happened recently that would've made her upset. Unless her and Tobin were fighting already, which she doubted because they were still be a gross couple. She hoped it wasn't memories haunting her still, they'd catch her at the worst times and it almost cost them their lives a couple times. But Mal couldn't blame her, she lost a lot of people and Servando, she couldn't think of how it felt to lose someone like that. It almost made her sick to the stomach to think about it. Losing Crystal would kill her, even losing Lindsey and Morgan would hurt. She forgot what it felt like to be hurt and in pain, and not just physically. It had only been Alex, Abby, and Christen for so long the thought of having other people scares her. Crystal scares her, Sammy scares her, they all scare her. She feels like she's too young to be worrying about these things but it's war. She was thrown into it as a teenager, it's all she's really known and she hates it. But there's really no other choice. 

"Hey are you okay?" Crystals voice pulls Mal out of her thoughts.   
She smiles sadly and nods, "Yeah just thinking"  
"Don't get lost in your thoughts", Crystal jokes and pats Mal on her back.  
All Mal can think of is how lost she actually is. 

////

"Tell me again why we're doing this?" Alex breathes between her steps.  
"You gotta be a little in shape Lex", Tobin breathes out next to her, picking up her pace a little.

They've run at least three miles by now and Alex was exhausted, it was getting hard to take more steps and Tobin increasing her speed wasn't helping. 

"Tobin can we just-", Alex cuts herself off, stopping and bending over to catch her breath.   
She hears Tobin stop, then sees her shoes a couple feet away so she decides to look up. And it was a bad decision, because Tobin is h o t. There's a glistening sheet of sweat covering her, her chest heaving as she's looking off somewhere. She has her mouth open as she breathes and her jawline is popping a lot, Alex's mouth waters at the sight. Lucky for Alex they stopped in a secluded area of the base. 

"Uh, Lex?" Tobin turns her attention to Alex and her eyebrow raises at the look she's giving her. 

Alex lunges forward, grabbing the back of her neck and slamming their lips together. Tobin yelps in surprise, but practically melts into Alex when she feels her lips. The kiss is already deep and messy, and Alex would keep kissing Tobin if her lungs didn't burn. 

"Feeling a little out of breath?" Tobin smirks.   
Alex rolls her eyes, "At least it's for a better reason"  
Tobin laughs that contagious laugh that Alex loves so much and turns back around, walking back towards the main area of the base, "Come on slow poke, let's get back before they have the meeting"

She starts walking off and Alex just watches her with a smile on her face. She can't even believe she's with Tobin, it all feels to surreal for her. Tobin is perfect in every way and it scares her, she doesn't want to lose her. And as she's watching her walk away she feels a flutter in her heart, so smiles wider. 

"God, I love you"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short, I've been having a slight case of writers block


	14. Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry.

They have one more day left until they start the mission. Lindsey is a mess of nerves. She's not even going into the field and she's more nervous than she's ever been. She feels like she made a mistake volunteering to help, she would've rather not known there were zombies out roaming in the middle of a desert. She went over all of the data, every single bit until she couldn't handle it. It only got worse the deeper she dug, and going back into the special ops room was like reopening wounds. This mission hurt her, mentally and emotionally hurt her and she doesn't know if she can come back from it. She's been trying to soak it all in, she's been trying to soak the war in for the past three years but she's had no luck. She still can't believe she was thrown into a situation like this, she can't even believe she's safe with Sentinel with everything she hears people in Reign talk about. It's a completely different world outside of Northern California. The world is broken and torn and it just hurts Lindsey even more. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Morgan's voice is an echo in her mind.  
"Yeah, I'm fine", she easily lies.  
"Hey, come on I know you better than that"  
All she can do is shake her head and focus back onto her work, "Just over thinking. I'll be fine, I promise"

////

"Christen this really isn't the time for you to get handsy", Julie whines as she feels Christens hands trail down her stomach.  
"Oh come on, they won't notice if we're gone a couple minutes without us", Christen whispers into Julie's ear, kissing down her neck.  
"Yes they will", Julie uses whatever strength she has to gently push Christen off, "And when they realize we're late we're gonna have to run more" 

Christen pouts but gets up anyways, lingering in the bathroom doorway. Julie watched her closely, noticing the tension in her shoulders and the look of distress on her girlfriends face. 

"Christen?"  
She doesn't get a response for a couple seconds, "Sorry what?"  
She becomes worried and slides off the bed, "What are you thinking about?"  
"Uh", Christen rubs the back of her neck and doesn't look directly at Julie, "It's nothing, really"  
"You're a horrid liar", she smirks and places a hand on Christens neck, "What's wrong?" 

She waits for a response but she doesn't get one. All she gets is Christens body going limp and her eyes rolling back into her head. It happens so quick she doesn't even realize it's happened until a couple seconds later. 

"Shit, Christen", she practically yells and drops to the floor with her, laying her out flat and shaking her. Christen doesn't wake up, so Julie quickly checks for a pulse and sighs when she finds one. She checks her eyes, finding her pupils perfectly fine. 

"God dammit Press", Julie groans as she scoops Christen up in her arms, carrying her out of the door. She knew she should probably be panicking but she obviously needed to get her girlfriend some help. 

She runs as fast as she can down the stairs and out of the building, yelling the second she sees Mallory and Crystal. They come sprinting towards Julie. 

"Oh my god what happened?"  
"I don't know! She was standing in the door and she looked worried so I asked what was wrong and she just passed out"  
"Oh no", Mallory whispers and stops.  
"What? Why oh no?"  
Mallory opens and closes her mouth a couple times, "She has arrhythmia, it's a heart condition. She's been pushing herself too hard, she's gonna have to rest for a couple days before she does anything again"  
Julie grows infuriated, "And she didn't think to tell us this?"  
"Okay wait now is not the time to be angry Julie, we need to get to the infirmary right now", Crystal says quickly as Julie's face contorts to anger. 

She feels an angry tear roll down her face, but she nods anyways and holds Christen tighter, running behind Crystal to the infirmary. When they get there she's crying freely and hesitates before setting Christen down on one of the operation beds that she was lead to. It's in a secluded room, only two other beds are there and they're both empty. She lays her girlfriend down carefully and steps back, doctors rushing to her side and attaching all kinds of things to her body. She feels an arm pull on her, and soon she's being led out of the room. 

////

"Do you think she's gonna be okay?"  
"Yeah, she'll be fine, she just needs a lot of rest. I've never seen her get that bad before"  
Crystal nods slowly, leaning against the back of her chair, "How come she didn't tell anyone?"  
"It hadn't happened for a while, we thought she got better and that it was nothing to worry about but I guess it's still there", Mal explains after blowing air out of her mouth. 

Crystal nods knowingly, remembering her injury a couple years ago that she thought was healed but was only getting worse. She still laughs when she thinks about it, she was so stupid not to see the signs. 

She shakes the memories off, glancing towards Julie, she's been silent since they pulled her out of the operation room. 

"Do you think Julie will be okay?"  
"I don't know, she seems to be taking this pretty hard"  
"How are you taking it?"  
"Christens strong, she always has been. I know she'll be fine" 

////

Alex and Abby show up an hour later, both came sprinting in the doors with the scariest looks of determination that Julie has ever seen. 

"Where is she?"  
"Still in the operating room", Mal draws out.  
"Still? How long has she been in there?"  
Mallory sarcastically looks at the non existent watch on her wrist, "Bout an hour and thirty minutes"  
"Mal she's never-"  
"I know"

Julie can see the distress on Alex and Abby's faces. She knows she doesn't really have a right to be as upset as them but Christen means so much to her and she's just so pissed off that Christen didnt tell her. She's even more pissed off that someone else didn't even try to tell her, all of this could've been avoided and Julie wouldn't be so angry. 

"Are you all here for Christen?" A deep voice startles Julie, but she perks up at the sound of her girlfriends name.  
"Yes, why?" Alex asks as she stands up.  
"I'm Doctor Parsons, the lead surgeon. I was hoping I could talk to one of you about Christen", he says, taking the glasses off of his face.  
"We're all here for her, you can tell all of us", Julie watches Abby take control of the situation, stepping to the front of the group.  
The surgeon sighs, putting his clipboard under his arm, "We've stabilized her for now, but not without a lot of complications. We had to do some surgery, and trust me she's fine now and she's going to need a lot of rest but there was a lot going on in her body that shouldn't have been. She pushed herself way past the limit she should've been going, and if I'm being honest she should have dealt with this problem years ago. I'm surprised she even made it this far. She had a lot of clotting near her heart and if you hadn't gotten here as quick as you did her heart would have stopped". 

Julie lets a sob escape her throat knowing that she almost lot Christen, she feels Alex wrap and arm around her as the surgeon continues talking to the group. 

////

Abby almost couldn't believe any of the words coming out of the doctors mouth. Christen was never this bad before, the most she would do was lose consciousness for a couple minutes and then she'd be right back on her feet. They didn't even know she had arrhythmia until after the war started, and everything was a mess back then so they just let it slip by. Abby knows they shouldn't have just brushed it off, Christen could have died an hour ago because of their carelessness. 

"When can we see her?" She asks.  
"She's asleep right now, she probably will be for a while but I'll allow one person to go and see her. The rest of you can look through the window or something, I just don't want a lot of clutter if something suddenly happens. I hope you can understand that" 

Abby nods understandingly and turns to the group behind her. Crystal is really the only one who doesn't look as stressed, Mallory and Alex have cold and distant looks, and Julie is just standing there with an empty face.

"Julie should go", Mallory says without really looking at anyone.  
"No, you guys are her family", Julie says as she shakes her head.  
"Yeah, but you're her girlfriend. I don't even remember Christen dating anyone before the war", Abby backs Mal up, Alex nodding in agreement. 

Abby pulls Julie by the hand down the hall, stopping in front of the door to Christens room, "We'll be right outside, and if it gets too much we'll be here"  
"Thanks", Julie smiles sadly, turning to the door and taking a deep breath. Alex and Mallory stand behind Abby near the window and watch the door close, Julie trudging over to the seat next to the bed and sitting down. A smile small stretches across Abby's face as she watches Julie's lips start moving.

////

"Wow. I can't believe I almost lost you. I don't know if you heard the doctors or not but you had some really bad blood clotting, he said if I hadn't gotten here as fast that you wouldn't have made it. And id be alone again"

She feels ridiculous, Christen isn't in some kind of deadly coma, she could wake up any second and she'd be fine. 

"God, I wish you would've told me about this. I wish someone would have told me. I'm worried sick about you right now. I know you'll be fine and up on your feet in a couple days but I could've lost you", Julie chokes out, lightly grabbing Christen's limp hand. 

"We can talk more when you wake up. Just get some rest for me, I'll be right here when you wake up"

She leans forward, kissing her forehead lightly. She smiles sadly at Christens sleeping form, a content expression on her face. 

////

"How are you doing with the whole Christen thing?"  
"I don't know, I'm worried. She's never been that bad before"  
"I'm sure she'll be fine. She's strong"  
"Yeah, I know"

Alex and Tobin were laying on the grass stairs of the Pit, they've been here for a couple hours just chilling out before they leave later on in the night. They made a plan to scout the outer parts of the base so they knew what they were working with, but they had to do it at night so they wouldn't get caught. Tobin was kind of nervous, she hadn't been out on a serious mission in a while. 

"Are you scared?"  
Tobin closes her eyes, "Yeah"  
"Hey", Alex sits up and pulls Tobin up with her, taking both of Tobins hands in her own, "It's gonna be fine. It's just a scouting mission"  
"We don't know what we're gonna find in that forest though", running into to some kind of zombie soldier thing was Tobins biggest fear.  
"We're soldiers Tobin, we'll make it. And if we do run into some certain doom, we'll get out of it together. You and me, remember?"

Tobin smiles and nods, leaning in to give Alex a loving kiss. The sparks she gets from Alex's kisses surprise her every time. So she can't really help that it gets a little heated really fast, Alex letting out a little moan that pulls her back to reality. 

"As much as I love kissing you, we're in public"  
Alex groans, laying back down onto the grass and pulling Tobins head into her lap. They lay together, their hands intertwined in the grass as the world keeps spinning around them. Tobin eventually falls asleep, tired from everything happening. She needs rest for tonight anyways, she has to be 100% awake and energized for it. 

////

A beeping stirs Julie awake. It's a loud, annoying beep, and it's almost deafening. She slowly opens her eyes and sees she's still in the extra bed in Christens operation room. Or what looks like the room, there's a mess of white lab coats running around and the beeping is only getting louder. Julie's groggyness isn't wearing off easily and the world seems to be moving in slow motion. She looks to her right where doctors are circled around Christen, yelling at each other and pulling tons of chords from different places of the room. She grows confused, their voices starting to pull her fully awake. 

"Doctor we have to stabilize her right now or there's no chance she'll survive"  
"Get me the shock therapy, none of the stimulants are working"  
"Someone get the head director down here and fast"  
"Sir we're losing her!"  
"Don't you think I know that?!"

Everything hits her at once, the hazardous beeping of Christens heartbeat monitor, the doctors screaming at each other and rushing around the room. She sees Christens body on the bed, her chest heaving and eyes bloodshot as they roll into the back of her head. All of her veins seem to be popping out, Julie finally realizing what's actually happening. 

"What the hell is happening?" She screams and some doctors look at her, but through the chaos not everyone hears her and they're concentrating on Christen.  
"Ma'am you can't be in here", a dark skinned woman walks carefully towards Julie and tries to pull her out but she jumps back.  
"She's my girlfriend! What's happening?"  
"Ma'am please, just come outside everything will be fine"  
"No it is obviously not fine, tell me what's going on!"

She fights against the doctor as she's being pulled out of the room, gripping onto the wall as Christens body comes into full view. 

And then she hears it. 

The monotone beep, the one that happens as Christens body stills and the doctors still with her. 

Everything goes back to slow motion. 

The doctor releases her hold on Julie as she cries out, pushing doctors out of the way so she can be next to her girlfriend. 

Her eyes are open and empty, her mouth slightly open as life trickles out of her. 

"No! No, you can't leave me! Not now, please Christen!" 

She pounds on Christens chest, hoping that somehow her heart will start back up and she'll get to hear that annoying beep again. 

But it's no use, Christens body is limp and Julie sobs, her cries echoing loudly through the room. 

"I love you Christen, I love you, please don't-", she slides down onto her knees, her forehead resting on Christens still stomach. 

And just like that, she feels every piece of soul within her crumble away.


	15. Discoveries Of Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my hand slipped again. but plot!

Tobin sits silently in the tree, not daring to move a muscle. Her eyes scan slowly above and below her, watching carefully for any movement in the shrubs. The world has been still for a while, nothing but a couple birds catch Tobins attention. 

Alex is in the tree behind her, both of them have been watching silently for about an hour. It's been dark for a while, they left Reign somewhere around 11, moving on the road for 3 hours until they ended up at the edge of the trees. They had to travel alone through the pitch black forest until they came to the other side. They searched around the area, they couldn't find any evidence left from the tech teams van, everything was picked clean and Tobins gut was telling her this wasn't a good idea. 

"What are we looking for exactly?" Alex whispers to her.  
"Anything out of the ordinary", Tobin keeps her eyes trained on the edge of the trees in front of her.  
"These trees are kind of big"

Tobin chuckles lowly, turning her head to look at Alex, "You're ridiculous"  
"At least I have humor with zombies running around", Alex shrugs, slowly standing on her branch and jumping onto Tobin's tree silently. She swings and climbs up the tree until she's sitting next to Tobin. 

"This is boring", she pouts.  
"Yeah, I know. If nothing happens in the next hour or so we can head back"  
Alex silently celebrates, leaning her head on Tobin's shoulder as they watch ahead. 

Tobin can see the large building in the distance, the lights illuminating the dark sky. The fence stretches out a lot farther than she thought it would, and she can see barbed wire at the top. The buildings extensions are dark, either the windows are covered or they don't want any light getting in or out of them. 

The moon slowly rises into the sky, stretching through the trees and giving Tobin some light to look in. There's a lot of sounds in the forest, she's surprised to hear owls and frogs croaking on the ground. She thought some kind of radiation or something like that would kill off animals in America, she guesses she thought wrong. 

"Why do you think the building extensions are dark?" Tobin ponders out loud.   
"Could be where they do the experiments. Or prison cells, Atlas would be the kind of people to not let their prisoners see outside"

Tobin nods, seeing the possibilities. Atlas would be the kind of people to do that, she just doesn't understand why they have the mindset to though. Why create zombies? Why start a war? Why do so many harmful experiments with everything going on? She doesn't understand any of it, and it pisses her off. 

////

Alex concentrates on the crunching of their feet in the leaves, looking ahead at the endless forest. She didn't pay attention to how long it took to get to the other side, now she's just super bored and tired. It feels like they've been walking forever. 

"How much farther do we have?"  
"Only little farther, I'm sure the tree line is about to- oh fuck"  
Alex stops and looks back at Tobin who's doubled over on the ground, holding her foot.   
"Woah, what'd you hit?"  
"I don't know", Tobin stands up slowly, pulling out her rifle and switching the light on. 

She shines it on the ground, Alex doing the same and they find a piece of metal laying on the ground. 

"What is that?"  
"I think it's part of the van", Tobin picks up the metal, turning it over.   
Alex reads the large white letters printed on the metal, "Sentinel"

////

Julie can feel the puff of her eyes as she turns in her bed. She hears another beeping in the room and she shuts her eyes even tighter, remembering that stupid beep and how her heart shattered when it died. All she remembers is screaming she loves her, that's all that's echoing through her head. And God did she mean it, she meant it with everything she had and not getting to hear it back was breaking her heart even more. 

"Julie", a familiar voice whispers in her ear.   
"I don't want to", she mumbles and digs her head farther into whatever pillow she's using, it's hard and curved and she doesn't like it.   
"Don't want to what?"  
"Live without her", her throat tightens and she doesn't know why she's saying this but she is.   
"Why?" The voice asks, it's just below a whisper.   
"I love her too much", Julie answers truthfully in her drowsy state.   
The voice chuckles, "Babe, wake up. It was just a dream" 

Her eyes flutter open at those words, low light finding her. She groggily looks around, noticing she's still in the tan colored operation room but she's not in the other bed. She lifts her head up and turns to the right, finding lively green eyes staring back at her. 

"Christen?" She's confused, mostly because those amazing eyes were filled with death when she was awake. And the monitor next to her was   
making that annoying death screech instead of the steady beat that tells Julie her girlfriends heart is beating. 

Christens eyes squint as she smiles at Julie, "I love you too"   
Julie's eyes explode wider, a giant smile finding its way onto her face, "Christen!"

Julie flings her arms around Christen, burying herself into the girlfriend she swore was dead a couple hours ago. 

"I thought you were dead", she chokes out as happy tears flow down her face.   
"It was just a dream Julie, just a dream" 

Christens hands find their way into Julie's hair and it feels so real that she starts believing the words. She doesn't know if she could deal with the actual heart break and loneliness that came with Christen actually being dead. She didn't want to remember or think about it. 

And then those four words finally register in her head and she stops crying, "You love me?"   
Christen smiles up at Julie, trailing her fingers over Julie's jawline, "Yeah, I do"

////

"Its gotta be around here somewhere"  
"We've spent half an hour looking, it probably got blow away or something"  
"From what wind?"

Alex rolls her eyes, pushing past the shrubbery. Tobin had gone on some wild rant about finding the van somewhere near the plate, all Alex could do was follow her around until she tired out. Which obviously wasn't going to be happening any time soon. 

"Tobin come on, we can look tomorrow when it's light outside", Alex whines as she feels fatigue start to settle on her.   
"I'm telling you, it's around here. It couldn't have gone far"   
"I thought it was back at the other tree line, not out here"   
"They probably decided to move back"  
"How did they even get a van in here? There's like no open space", Alex says as she looks around. 

There really was no space to get a van through, the trees were smushed together tighter than the width of Alex's shoulders. There's no way they could've pulled a stunt like a van through the trees. 

Alex sighs, continuing through the forest. She just wants to stop walking and pull Tobin back to their truck but the tan soldier keeps going. She's about to protest again but a glare to the right of her stops her. 

"Get down!" She whisper yells and pulls Tobin down to the ground, switching to her thermal vision. She looks around but doesn't find anything.   
"What the hell Lex?" Tobin whisper yells back, throwing her hands up.   
"I thought I saw something", Alex explains slowly, raising off the ground and turning back to where she saw the glare. 

She was sure it was the barrel of a gun or the reflection of metal armor. She pulls her pistol out, marching up the small slope towards the glare. It catches her again, causing her to flinch and freeze. She moves her head until it stops, looking in the direction and seeing a slightly darker portion of the forest a couple yards away. 

"What is that?" Tobin whispers next to her. 

Alex shrugs, stepping closer and seeing a black tarp hanging from the trees. She carefully pushes it back, raising her pistol as she does. When she rips it off the trees she sees a big metal box about the size of a truck hidden between three trees, a small handle built into the right side. She notices a square on the center, slightly lighter than the rest of the box with four screws on each corner. 

"I think we just found the van", Alex states, reaching for the handle.   
"Wait!" Tobin yells a little too loud, grabbing Alex's arm.   
"What?"  
"We don't know what could be behind that door", she warns.   
"Okay, get behind something and I'll open it?"   
"No, let me do it", Tobin pulls Alex out of the way, grabbing onto the handle and waiting until Alex got behind something. 

Alex lifts her pistol at the door, nodding to Tobin. She counts down from three, swinging the door open haphazardly. 

////

When Tobin swings open the door she watches Alex carefully, seeing her stand still and stare at the open door confuses her. 

"Don't shoot!" She hears a voice from inside the box yell. She swears she knows that voice from somewhere, but it sounds too broken to be her. 

Tobin walks around the open door, peering slowly into the door. A bright light illuminates the room, allowing Tobin to see computer screens built into the walls, a bed put in the far corner, and a trap door bolted into the floor. Her eyes trail to the blonde girl standing in the doorway, her hands above her head and a fearful expression on her face. 

Tobin's stomach drops at that face, and lord did she wish she hadn't been so relentless in finding the van. 

"Tobin?"  
Her throat tightens, "Amy?"

////

"Hey Lindsey can you come look at this really quick?"   
"Sure, what's up?"

Morgan taps on her screen a little, pulling up the files she had just found. She spent a full hour doing some serious digging, and what she found wasn't good at all. Countless caches of data, all building a case against Reign. The volunteers who went on the mission had been secretly working together, finding and storing data against Reign. She found them by clicking on a hidden screen from one of the scientists videos. It was named 'Alpha 101' and contained way more files than the actual mission case did. 

"Where did this come from?" Lindsey's eyes dart everywhere on the screen, surprise written all over her face.   
"I found it, I've been digging harder the past hour"  
"What does it all say?" 

Morgan purses her lips, scanning the room for any hidden cameras or microphones. 

"Hey Ali, can we all go for a walk or something?"  
"We just went on one like two hours ago", Ali says, raising her eyebrow at Morgan.   
"I know, but I found some", she tries to tell Ali that they need to talk with her expression and tone, "Things"   
Ali looks at her with a concerned face, but soon both of her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline, "Oh. Okay, yeah, let's go" 

Morgan smiles at her success, swiftly pulling the flash drive she had in the table out and pushing it into her pocket. The group files out of the room, walking into the main hall and looking for Dawn. Morgan sees most of the desks empty, checking her watch and almost cursing out loud at how early in the morning it was. No wonder no one has bothered them for a while.

Tobin and Alex had only left a couple hours ago, Ashlyn had texted them and said they were at the forest entrance half an hour ago. She didn't even realize it had been that long. 

"We're going for a walk, we'll be right back", Ali calls out to Dawn who is sitting at her desk in front of the stone structure.   
"But I just got back", Mallorys voice travels through the large room, everyone turning to her small hunched body.   
"A little exercise never killed you", Lindsey jokes, slinging her arm around the younger girl.   
"What are you doing up anyways?" Ali asks.   
"I took a nap after training so I could come down and help, which was obviously a horrible decision"

The group had decided to get Mallory into training after they stopped going through the data so much, she needed the training and she had agreed. But she still came by in the early hours to help out if it was needed, which Morgan gratefully appreciated. 

The group walks out of the command center and up the concrete slant, taking in the early morning air. It was pretty chilly outside, Morgan huddles closer to Lindsey as they continue walking down to the Pit. Once they finally get there, Morgan takes them to a secluded area and pulls out the flashdrive. 

"This thing right here could take down the entire Reign company, along with leaders down in Pride and Dash"  
"I'm sorry, what?" Ali asks.   
"I did some serious digging, like really seriously, and found an attachment hidden in a crypted file. I got through all the firewalls, but none of the stuff on this drive is pretty. There's countless reports on corruption, secret killings, things Atlas would do. I didn't go over everything, I just skimmed through and found this", she plugs the flash drive into her tablet, illuminating the screen enough so the others could see. 

Silence washes over the group. 

"Holy shit, Reign is working with Atlas"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LMAO YALL REALLY THOUGHT I KILLED CHRISTEN OFF THATS SO FUNNY. nah I'm not that cold hearted, just wanted to mess with ya a lil bit ;) but you can tell me how much you hate me for this chapter down there in the comments!
> 
> much love


	16. You Don't Know What You're Getting In To

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't like this chapter

"Tobin, oh my god it's really you!" 

Alex watches silently as Amy runs out of the box and flings herself at Tobin. Tobin sees her keep the gun half raised, probably confused and skeptical about the situation. 

"You're alive?" Tobin asks Amy, hesitantly moving her arms around her best friend.   
"You look so much older, I didn't think you could get tanner. And your hair, wow your hair looks nice"

She can't bring herself to smile at her ranting because she's angry. Angry that Amy is alive and healthy and she didn't know, angry that Amy hasn't even tried to contact her for two years. 

"You're alive", Tobin whispers to herself, pushing Amy back with an incredulous look on her face.   
"Tobin?" Amy furrows her eyebrows at the tan soldier.   
"What the fuck Amy?" She raises her voice, clenching her fists and stepping closer.   
"Woah hey, why're you angry?"   
"What do you even mean why am I angry? You disappear for two years and all of a sudden you show up? What the hell are you doing out here? How are you alive? Why didn't you tell me anything?"  
Amy starts stuttering, unable to get words out, "Tobin this isn't you, you don't get angry-"  
"YOU DONT KNOW ME", Tobin screams, "You haven't been there for me for two years, you have no right to say what is and isn't me!" 

Amy stares in silence at Tobin, her face falling before realization dawns over her, "She didn't tell you"   
"What?"  
"Lauren, she didn't tell you. She didn't tell you anything, about why I had to leave?"  
"No she was just as traumitized as I was!" Tobin practically screams, red hot anger boiling everywhere in her body.   
"Oh my god, they got her too then", Amy paces around, running her hands through her hair that seems to have gotten so much longer.   
"What are you talking about?

Tobin has absolutely no idea what Amy is talking about and why Lauren is involved with it. It just makes her angrier, her best friends knew something obviously bad and didn't tell her. And now one of them is dead. 

////

"Julie I'm sorry okay? I thought it was gone"  
"Heart diseases don't just disappear!"  
"How was I supposed to know that? 

Julie swings her head around and glares intensely at her girlfriend. They had spent a lot of yesterday morning just laying there talking, Julie still recovering from her horrid dream. But she was reminded of why she had the dream in the first place when one of the doctors came in to check on them. It had sparked some anger inside of her and she started ranting about how stupid Christen was to not tell anyone, and Christen had just sat there silently. 

"Julie"  
"What if I hadn't gotten here in time? You could be dead!"  
"Julie"  
"And you just didn't think about it? Serious training where some people are passing out and you just didn't think about it?"  
"Julie"  
"Like I love you and everything but are you an idiot? And don't even get me started on your friends not telling us because-"  
"JULIE"

She stops pacing and turns to Christen who is grinning at her in the bed. 

"I'm sorry, babe, I am. I honestly thought it was nothing to worry about. And I didn't wanna bother or worry you with it"

Julie watches her girlfriend hang her head and pick at her nails, smiling sadly and sitting on the edge of the bed. 

"Christen, I don't care, okay? I wouldn't have cared if you told me a couple days ago. I wouldn't have stopped liking you just because of some heart disease. If anything I would've dragged you to a doctor and gotten you checked out. Your worries are my worries babe"

Christen looks up to Julie with tears in her eyes and Julie's heart breaks, having never seen this side of Christen and now she wishes she hadn't. 

"I'm sorry", it comes out as a broken whispers.   
"Hey no, don't cry", Julie moves so she's sitting next to Christen, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and rubbing her back soothingly. 

They sit for about an hour, Christen silently crying as Julie comforts her. She feels bad for getting angry now, she didn't want to worry Christen about not being there for her. Because of course she wants to, she's just so upset that Christen didn't tell her. And yeah, they've only been dating for like a week but Julie has never loved and cared for anyone so much before it drives her insane. 

"I don't mean to interrupt, but I'd like to have a talk with both of you for a moment", the doctors voice startles the couple.   
"Yeah, of course", Christen says as she wipes her tears away. 

Julie slides off the bed as the doctors closes the door, "What's this about?"  
"Just a check up mostly, I've gone over Christens charts and hopefully she'll be back up and training in another week. Like I said after the surgery, we got most of the clotting out and with our new equipment we can speed up the healing process. It'll take a lot of resting though, and once you do get back on the field you'll have to work your way back up from easier to harder things. If you ever get symptoms or pass out again, you'll have to come straight back here so we can do some more tests and see what the problem is", the doctor says as he flips through his notepad, walking towards the heart beat monitor, "Your heart beats been fine for the most part, there has been a couple spikes in the past hour but I assume that's from what I interrupted, I apologize again by the way"  
"It's fine, really doctor", Christen smiles faintly, taking Julie's hand in her own.   
"Alright, I'll leave you to it then. I'll come back and check on you in a couple hours, there's nurses out in the hall if you need anything", he smiles politely and walks out the door, leaving the couple alone again. 

////

"No"  
"Yes"  
"No"  
"Tobin can you just-"  
"No, that's impossible, it's impossible"  
"Listen you don't have to believe me, but it's the truth" 

Alex sighs as she watches the two interact, Tobin still in denial of everything Amy had just told her. 

Apparently, Reign is working with Atlas and Alex isn't even denying it. She knew something was up when they arrived, she just couldn't place it. And now that she knows they work together she's just plain angry. She was more angry at herself for trusting people, but Amy had told them that FIFA and a lot of the other companies didn't know about it. Only the leaders of Reign, Pride, and Dash knew. Then she started explaining how her and Lauren had found out and started investigating but were caught, and that's why Amy disappeared. It was all super confusing to Alex, she didn't know the back story to Amy and Lauren.

"Why?"  
"We never got that far, but we overheard some things about Atlas buying out the leaders. It was bad"

Alex had been silent most of the time, watching and listening to Amy, "So what do you propose we do?"  
Amy blows out a breath and leans back, "I have no idea. You need to leave, first of all"  
"But we can't we have a mission to complete", Tobin explains.   
Amy's eyebrow raises slowly, "What kind of mission?"  
"We're supposed to go to the building on the other side of the trees, Reign said they sent in a volunteer team and they never came back, along with the tech team. They said zombies are involved"

Alex watches Amy closely, seeing the blank expression on her face. She thinks she's in shock but she suddenly bursts out laughing. Alex and Tobin share a look of confusion, watching the tiny blonde double over in her seat. 

"Uh, Amy?"  
"Oh god, i'm sorry, that's just so funny", Amy manages to get out in her fit of laughter.  
"What is?" Tobin asks hesitantly.  
"It worked, they actually fell for it", Amy sits back up and wipes tears from her eyes, collecting herself slowly, "We made all of that up, or I did at least. That building is abandoned, it's occupied by some rebel group"

Alex and Tobin stare at Amy, both taken aback by this new information. 

"So, no zombies, no threat of zombies, and no Atlas having weird new technology", Alex asks.   
"Yeah, the only threat you have of them are double agents. No one in FIFA knows besides me and Lauren, and I'm surprised she still hasn't told you anything about it. How is she by the way?"

Alex tenses up as Tobin stills, both of them silently panicking. 

"She's dead"  
Amy's face falls and her mouth opens and closes a bunch of times, "What?"  
"She was shot last year, we were flying over the Arizona desert and a rebel managed to disguise himself as our pilot. I gave him a pistol to protect himself just in case. He shot her on accident, he was aiming for Carli but Lauren stepped in front of her and we had to crash the plane", Tobin explains somberly, a single tear rolling down her cheek. 

Alex takes her girlfriends hand and rubs her thumb across the smooth skin. 

////

Lindsey groans as she opens her eyes, bright light hitting her directly in the face. She rolls over in her bed, her eyes adjusting to the light slowly. She hears the light snoring of Moe in the bed next to her, all of the sheets thrown back. Lindsey laughs lightly, pulling back her blanket and slipping out of the bed. 

"Moe, get up", she throws a pillow at her best friend, successfully waking her up.   
"Fuck off", she hears her groan as she slips into the bathroom, turning on the shower. 

She stares into the mirror, sneering at the heavy bags sitting under her eyes. She hasn't had much sleep the past few days, she's sure it's late in the afternoon right now. They stayed up all night going over the Alpha 101 project, there was too much information to go through in one day and they ended up staying up late enough to hear back from Tobin and Alex. It was around 7 in the morning, the sun was starting to rise and the group decided to call it a day. 

Lindsey thought it was too much information to take in, and it really was. Learning that your companies leaders were working with the enemy was hard, and they really needed to come up with a plan to leave and stop them. And maybe they couldn't stop them, but FIFA needed to know and Lindsey needed to know if Carli and Becky knew anything. 

"Lindsey hurry up you're gonna take all the hot water!"  
She rolls her eyes and turns the shower off, not realizing how long she'd been in, "I'm going, calm down!"

She hesitantly pulls on her towel and walks out of the bathroom, not wanting to face another day.

////

"What are we gonna do?'  
"I don't know, we can't tell anyone until we find out more"  
"What about the mission? We know it's not real so what are we supposed to do tomorrow?"  
"We need to gather a couple people and ask them, Carli and Becky are out leaders and if they're a part of this we're screwed. Ali and them deserve to know, but we can't tell anyone else"  
"But Amy said Carli and Becky don't know anything, why are we asking them about it?"  
"It's been a year since Lauren died, who knows what Jill and Dawn have gotten them into", Tobin whispers as they enter the cafeteria.   
"And what if they do know something? They'll know we know and cut off our heads or something"  
"I'm hoping it won't come to that"


	17. Shut Up And Drive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to feel about this chapter

Chapter 17 

It's been a week. A week since Julie almost had a heart attack, a week since the tech team found out about Reign working with Atlas, and a week since Tobin and Alex came back. 

They went and pretended to go along with the mission, but they just went to Amys little set up in the woods and got some fake data to give Reign. They still haven't come up with an idea to get their team out, they only have two days left before they're supposed to go back to FIFA. 

Tobin told the tech team what was going on when they had a free day, she still can't believe Reign actually fell for their fake data. It was mostly just saying they destroyed everything that was going on and contained the zombies and they weren't a threat anymore. Jill seemed pleased and sent them off to train with the regular camp. 

But when Tobin found out that the tech team already knew she was surprised to say the least. She didn't know Morgan knew how to get that deep into files, and she was proud. But the threat still stood, and things have been a little too calm and quiet around the base for Tobins likings. 

"We have to tell Carli", Lindsey blurts out at dinner one night.   
"Lindsey we can't-"  
"Yes, we can Tobin. If she knew something about it she would've told us and we wouldn't be here. She would've come up with some plan to destroy Reign, not take us to the heart of the threat" 

She hated how Lindsey was right. They needed to tell Carli before they left, just in case Reign tried something. 

She searches around the cafeteria, her eyes landing on her captain on the other side of the room, "Carli!"

A couple heads turn her way but once Carli looks at her she motions for her to come over. She turns back to Becky and Abby before hopping out of her seat and walking to Tobins table. 

"Hey, what's up?"   
"Hey, uhm, listen don't freak out or anything but-"  
"You do realize telling me not to freak out before you say something is gonna make me freak out more right?"  
Tobins mouth opens and closes a couple times before Ali takes the lead, "Just sit down for a second, this is serious"   
"Okay, so now you're actually starting to freak me out. What's going on?"   
Morgan pulls out her flashdrive and slides it across the table to Carli, "Reign is working with Atlas" 

All heads turn towards her as she lays it out plain and simple, but no one really had a plan on how to tell Carli anyways. 

They all watch her carefully, trying to judge her emotions as she stares down at the flashdrive. 

////

"Babe, wake up"

Christen stirs awake, slowly opening her eyes to see Julie looking down on her. 

"We have to go"  
"What?"  
"Come on, get up we have to leave"  
"But I'm not cleared to leave yet, Julie what're you doing?"

Julie is scrambling around, shutting off the machines and throwing clothes at Christen. 

"Julie!"  
"I'll explain later, right now I need you to focus on getting out of here as fast as we can"

Christen starts to internally panic, but she slides out of the bed anyways and throws the clothes on, watching Julie move around the room. 

"Are you ready?"  
Christen opens her mouth to protest but she nods anyways. 

Julie pulls her out of the room, she already feels a little light headed but she walks to the right of the hall. It's dark outside, she can tell by the way all the lights are dimmed and the soft glow from the windows at the top of the walls. 

"Julie where are we-"

Julie shushes her quickly, putting a finger on her lips as to say be quiet. Christen narrows her eyes at her girlfriend, but follows her farther down the hall. They stop at an intersection, Julie peeking around the corner slowly and looking around everywhere. 

She nods her head to the left, pulling on Christens arm and dragging her farther down the hall. She watches all the rooms go by, some occupied and others completely empty. They're about to round another corner but a voice stops Julie. 

"He's doing fine, we just need to get him into surgery...No i promise...Alright I'll let you know, I'm heading to A Wing now"

Christen knows she was in A Wing so the doctor must be heading their way. Julie quickly pulls her behind a large cart of bed sheets and pillows, pushing her between the space of the wall and the cart. She listens as the clicking of heels gets closer, the doctor eventually walking right past them without noticing. Christen feels Julie relax, but quickly gets pulled from the small space and around the corner. She can see the exit door at the end of the dimly lit hall, which must be where they're going. 

"Do you know how to hack alarms?" Julie whispers to her.   
"Yeah, why?"  
"We have to turn the alarm off of the fire exit to get out. They'll know we're leaving if we don't" 

Christen sighs heavily, walking faster to the exit door. She looks around the lock and notices a slightly lighter patch of paint next to the frame. She smirks, placing her hand on the patch and pushing in. The wall sinks in, revealing a keypad and jumbled wires. 

"This is gonna take a second", she says to Julie who sighs.   
"We don't have a lot of time, the shifts are about to switch"  
"Just let me concentrate", Christen snaps and leans down so she's eye level with the keypad.

It's not a serious lock, she only has to cut one of the wires. The problem is figuring out which one she's supposed to cut in the mess of them. She pulls the wires out carefully, quickly sorting them out and finding where they're attached on the keypad. 

"Two minutes Christen"  
"Hush"

She grabs a knife from a nearby table, using it to pull a blue wire out. 

"Please be the one", she prays before cutting it. It's silent for a moment, and she thinks she cut the wrong one but a soft ding and a robotic voice let her know the alarm has been cut off. 

"Alright come on, we don't have much time", Julie whispers as she pushes the door open, dragging Christen out into the humid air. 

They jog down the metal stairs as quietly as they can, reaching the ground level and running to an opening in the building. Julie looks around the corner and presses a button on her wrist pad. 

"I got her out, where are you guys?"  
"Had a little trouble getting past the security on the armory. We'll be there in a couple seconds", Alex's voice says quietly. 

"Julie what the hell?"   
"Reign is working with Atlas"  
"I'm sorry what?"  
"Listen I'll explain it to you later, right now you just need to trust me and listen so we can get out of here alive" 

Christen stares hard at Julie, debating whether she's telling the truth or this is some stupid exercise. Or maybe it's a dream, she can't really tell. Her heart is pounding too fast and her head is starting to hurt from moving around so much. 

"You're lucky I love you", Christen says with a frown on her face.   
Julie smiles and quickly pecks Christens lips, "I know, now come on"

They turn around the corner and jog down the tunnel, Christen can hear a car driving up from the echo of the tunnel. When they reach the edge of the tunnel a large truck pulls up and the back door opens, revealing Abby and Mallory. 

"Get in, we only have a couple minutes to get across the base"

Julie and Christen jump into the truck, Ashlyn slamming on the gas and swerving out of the alley of the hospital. She flys past the buildings, haphazardly moving around the corners and objects standing in the way. They pass by the building everyone was staying in and two more trucks pull up on the sides of Ashlyn's. Christen looks out the window and sees Ali driving with Kelley and Hope, and Morgan and Lindsey with Moe in the other. 

"We're only a mile away from the gate, where's Carli and Becky with everyone else?" Abby asks into a radio.   
"We're pulling out of the hanger now, everyone's here on this side. What's going on with you guys?" Carli's voice cracks through the speakers of the truck.   
"Everyone's here, we're passing the Pit right now. How are Alex and Tobin doing?"  
"We just got past the security gate, there's a lot of guards on patrol right now, I heard a few saying they saw you all leaving and we're sending out a patrol unit", Tobin's breathing is heavy as she speaks, Christen figures she's been fighting and running.   
"I just entered the communicatiosns building, I'll cut everything off so we can get out without them knowing"  
"Hurry Alex, we'll be there in three minutes tops", Ashlyns voice is coated with worry, and Christen is scared Alex won't make it to wherever she's supposed to be in time. 

Ashlyn eases on the pedal more, weaving around the buildings until they can finally see the large gate a distance away. 

"I'm at the gate now, it'll take me a second to get past the guards and open it but you should be able to get out in time", Tobin says.  
"Don't get shot Tobin"  
"Doubtful"

Christen looks behind her and sees the big bus speeding out of the hanger in the air field, the other two trucks followin closely behind Ashlyn. 

"I cut off the communications, I'll be at the gate in a minute", Alex says as the lights surrounding the fence and the edge of the base flicker off.   
"I'm opening the gate"  
"Alex get your ass to the gate, we can't slow down"  
"Hey there's two trucks pulling out of hanger after you Carli!"

Christen flinches as gun shots ring through the air and her head whips back to see Ali's truck slow down and turn around, Kelley and Hope both sporting rifles. 

"What are they doing?!" Christen screams over the wind and gunshots going through the air, watching as the two black cars chase the bus across the field. 

"Tobin, get that gate open!"  
"I got it! It's open go!"

Ashlyn slams on the gas again and now they're riding full speed at the gate. Morgans truck speeds up also, Kling jumping onto thebed of the truck with a rifle in her hands. 

"What the hell is Tobin doing?"

Christen turns her attention back to the building where the gate is opening, seeing Tobin climb ontop of it. 

"Where is Alex?"  
"I'm fine, I'm with Tobin now just get your asses to the gate"

Alex appears out of the building, climbing up the building after Tobin. More gun shots ring through the air, followed by two large explosions that practically shake the ground. Christen doesn't want to turn around for fear the bus just blew up, but Carli's excitement through the radio let's her know they shot down the cars chasing after them. 

"I'm setting the bombs up now, Morgans truck needs to go first, then Ashlyn and Carli can follow behind them"  
"Bombs?" Christen asks ridiculously, grabbing onto Julie tighter.   
"We have to blow the gate so they can't come after us, they don't have heli's like we do so they only have ground transportation", Ashlyn yells over the wind and slows down, Morgan quickly passing them. 

They're at the gate now, Morgan passing through easily and Ashlyn follows. Christen turns so she can see Carli coming with the bus, and then realization hits her. Alex and Tobin don't have a truck with them so they're sitting ducks on building. Or that's what she thinks, until Hope comes around the corner and they jump off the building together, landing perfectly into the bed of the truck. 

"Blow it now!"

Everything seems still and silent for a split moment, Hope and Carli rushing out of the gate after the rest of the team as the gate and the concrete around it explode and crumble. It shakes the ground and Christen wonders where the hell they got the equipment to get an explosion like that. 

"We're free!" 

Christen smiles as everyone yells into the radio. 

////

-8 Hours Earlier-

"You're not fucking with me?"  
"Oh my god for the last time, no! We're serious"

The entire table groans again, having said this at least ten times as Carli sat there and denied it. 

"But, why?"  
"We don't know, the most I've found out is Atlas buying out their leader"  
"So what you're saying is, Jill and Dawn are talking and working with Atlas right now?"  
"Yeah, they have been for the past three years"  
"And this zombie thing?"  
"Not real", Tobin speaks up again.   
"How do you know?"

Tobin opens her mouth to respond but she doesn't know if she should tell Carli, "Amy did it"

Carli stares open mouthed at her for a minute, "I'm sorry what?" 

Alex sighs heavily next to her, "Amy had to leave Sentinel when her and Lauren started digging through things and got caught. That's why she disappeared, and by some strange luck she happened to be in the same forest that was in between us and the fake Atlas facility. Her and Lauren had come up with a fake animating program to trick Reign and send some people out. They ended up getting ambushed by the rebels holding up the facility and she still hasn't heard anything from them. And she probably won't"

////

"When did this all start happening, how are we not dead yet?"  
"It started three years ago, my guess is Atlas started buying out the leaders slowly and worked their way up the chain. Pride was first, then Dash, Red Stars, Breakers, and then Reign. I'm sure FIFA and Thorns are next on the list, if they aren't already being bought"  
"So what do we do now? Come up with a plan to kill them or something?"  
"We were going to leave that up to you, actually. You are the captain after all"  
"We have to tell everyone then"  
"Wait no!" A collection of protests follow Carli as she starts standing up. 

"Why not? They all deserve to know if we're gonna make a plan"  
"You know we can't do that, half of them will get pissed enough to go and kill them right now and that's not what we need. Let's wait until we get back home, and then we can plan"  
"And what if they're already planning on doing something before we leave?"  
"We're soldiers, we'll fight"

////

"We have to leave today. This stuff is bad, really bad and I'm not staying here another minutes. Get everybody gathered and packed"  
"Carli they'll notice, and Christen is still in bed rest"  
"I don't care, Becky and I have talked and this is crossing over the line. We leave early in the morning, we'll get Christen out and we'll take whatever we need. I want you and Alex to get into your stealth mode and get data from the Armory and the Command Center. Becky and I will be gathering everyone and getting packed. Ashlyn and Ali will handle getting our rides, we'll be taking the bus and two trucks back. Julie is gonna go get Christen out, Kling, Moe, and Lindsey will go get the vehicles, and Hope and Kelley will be helping with equipment. Is that understood?" 

Everyone at the table share a knowing look and nod, quickly getting up from the table and taking the necessary people with them. 

////

"Looks like we're getting our stealth mission after all", Alex says jokingly to Tobin as they quickly walk down the concrete slope to get their suits.   
"I'm just glad we get to take some souvenirs", Tobin smirks as they get to the alleyway. 

Alex remembers the pass code to the armory after watching Dawn punch it in so many times. So the first part is easy, the only problem they really have right now is getting into the glass cases that hold the suits and weapons. 

"How do you think we should do this?"  
"Well, we're special ops. We'll hack into the system and get it open. And if we can't there has to be a button around here somewhere" 

They search around the dark room for a couple minutes, Tobin managing to get the weapons case open but they don't have any luck with the suits. Alex leans on the glass, her eyes trailing to the sides of the case. There's a lock system on the corners of the cases, latching the glass to the inside of the wall. She can see a faint line where wires have been laid, her eyes travel across the bottom of the case until she finds exactly what she needs. 

The wires lead to a panel on the side of the wall, a tiny hole let's her open up the wall and reveal a touch screen panel. 

"Bingo", she whispers as she taps on the screen and a firewall system pops. She's had plenty of security hacking experience, so she gets through the firewalls with ease. When a command screen pops up she taps on the button labeled "Open Cases" and the sound of unlocking gears causes her to smile. 

"Where did you learn how to do that?"  
"Atlas, but i used to more against them than for them"

Alex winks as she pulls the suit down, quickly slipping it on and grabbing all the equipment for it. They're suited and walking out the door in less than two minutes, jogging down to the command center doors. 

"How are we gonna do this?"  
"No one works in the data cache section this late at night, we can just set a bug in the system so they'll open up all the firewalls and download everything before they fix it. We won't have to go in the command center, all the things we need are in the cylinder"  
"Great, let's do this then"

////

"What the fuck do you mean Reign is working with Atlas?"   
"Listen I don't know anything about it okay? Tobin and her team have been working on it for the past week, we they know just as much as we do but we need to leave now" 

Hope is skeptical, they would have known by now if their own people were working with the enemy. But they didn't mention anything about FIFA knowing anything, 

Her and Kelley are supposed to go gather weapons and equipment from the storage rooms and bring them back to the bus to take. She knows it's going to take a lot of work to get everyone's Exo Suits back into the bus, but she knows this is serious and they'll have to hurry. 

Everyone in the room starts dispersing to their areas, Hope and Kelley running down to the storage area. They quickly unlock the doors and start pulling things out, grabbing everything that they can and hauling it out to the exit. Ali pulls up to the door after a while of packing with a truck, she starts helping out too. They manage to get through four rooms before Carli comes down and tells them they're leaving in an hour.


	18. Square One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for how long it took to update and for how short this is. I haven't had any inspiration and exams are stressing me out. I promise the next chapter will be longer and better

They get back to FIFA before the sun starts rising. It's silent as everyone starts unpacking the trucks and the bus, some confused as to why they were just being shot at by their own people and some trying to come up with a plan to get out. 

"Everyone head to your rooms and get some sleep. We'll have a team meeting later once everyone's rested", Carli calls out to the girls who are walking slowly to the building.   
"What are we gonna do?" Tobin says as she steps next to Carli.   
"I don't know. We'll figure it out though, we always do"

Tobin nods slowly, picking up her pace slightly so she can get to her unit faster. Everyone's moving like slugs, exhausted from the traveling and the stress. 

She has no idea where Alex or Kelley is so she just walks up the stairs alone, slowly making her way to her unit. 

"Night everyone", she calls out as she passes open units.   
"Night Tobin", she gets a couple responses but one of them are Alex or Kelley. 

She sighs, walking the rest of the way to her unit and throwing everything on floor when she gets there. She smiles at the sight of her bed, falling face first into it and closing her eyes. 

She spends ten minutes relaxing her muscles and evening out her breathing, but she gets disrupted but a knock on her door.

"Carli needs you in the conference room", it's Kling.   
"Of course she does", Tobin whines and smiles tiredly as her apologetic face.   
Kling follows Tobin down the hall, "You'll probably get to sleep later, you've got the worst of this stuff"  
"I guess, I just don't know what we're gonna do once Reign gets the word to Atlas we left"   
"If it was just Jill and Dawn then wouldn't everyone else be on Sentinels side? They wouldn't just turn their backs on us would they?"  
"I don't know Kling, this whole situation is a mess. Jill and Dawn are powerful leaders, if they give a good enough deal anyone in Reign would follow them. I just don't know why the hell they would turn their backs on us like that"  
"You don't think Atlas is planning anything,  
do you?"  
"They're always planning something, what that something is, I don't know"

They walk back down the last set of stairs and turn to the left, walking farther down the hall until they reach the conference room. 

"You asked for me?" Tobin announces herself to the room, finding Carli, Becky, Hope, and Kelley surrounding the table.   
"Hey this won't take long, just have a seat"

Tobin sits in the nearest chair, which just happens to be next to Kelley, and leans back as she listens to Becky. 

"So we did some damage to Reigns transportation, communications, and their ability to get outside for a while. We don't know how long we have to figure something out, but we need to get out and into hiding as soon as possible"  
"Woah woah woah, leave?"  
"Well yeah, we can't exactly stay here-"  
"But this is our home, it has been for seven years. We can't just leave it, we're soldiers for a reason we can fight them off"   
"Tobin you know our soldiers won't fight their own brothers and sisters", Kelley whispers.   
"There's no other way Tobin, we need to leave"

She sits there silently, thoughts running everywhere through her head. FIFA is her home, she can't just leave everything behind. And where would they go? There aren't many places in America left after all the attacks. She can't even begin to think of anywhere to go. 

"We'll regroup everyone in the afternoon, it's just something to start thinking about. I'm not going to let anyone die", Carli states firmly, getting out of her seat and walking straight out the door. 

Tobin sits still, things still running through her head. 

"Go get some sleep Tobs", Hope says with a pat on her shoulder. 

Yeah, like she'll be sleeping. 

////

"Julie I don't feel too good-"  
"Wait babe not over here- ugh"

Julie holds Christens hair back as she throws up, rubbing her back soothingly. 

"If you weren't my girlfriend I'd punch you in the face for making me do all of that running, right out of surgery too- oh jeez"  
"Shh, I know"

Christen fell asleep the second they got out of the Reign zone, Julie was kind of glad she did. It didn't give her the chance to throw up or anything of that sorts. But once she woke up as started moving around she started hurling everywhere, Julie's still seriously worried because throwing up wasn't one of the side effects the doctor had mentioned. Maybe it was just getting active so soon out of heart surgery but it was still nerve racking every time Christen bent over. 

"Come on, we have to get you to the infirmary"  
"You think?" 

Christen glares coldly at Julie, wiping her mouth and walking towards Ashlyn and Ali who are heading there too. 

"Well you look like shit", Ashlyn jokes as they catch up with them.   
Christen groans, rolling her eye, "Yeah, tell me about it"

They walk silently to the infirmary, Ali weakly pushing open the doors. Bright light hits Julie in the face and she has to squint to see inside. 

"Oh thank god, there's no one in here"

Ali sighs happily at the empty room, throwing herself onto one of the gurneys. Julie guides Christen to one of the beds, laying her down carefully. 

"Babe go get some sleep, I'll be fine"  
Julie chuckles, "If you think I'm leaving your side you're wrong"   
"I love you"  
Julie smiles and plants a kiss on Christens forehead, "I love you too"  
"Great, now hand me that trash can before I hurl all over you"

////

"Lindsey are you in there?"  
"Uh, yeah, what's up?"  
"Mal wants to know if you accidentally took her shoes"

She throws her hands up exasperatedly, angrily swinging her door open. Moe is staring up at her innocently, her hands behind her back as she rolls back and forth on her heels. 

"Woah, are you okay?"   
"I'm fine"

Its an easy lie, coated with nothing but anger and sadness. She's been like this for three days. Three days of lingering in her own thoughts. It's starting to drive her crazy, she hates everything that's going through her head. It's starting to affect the way she talks to Moe and Mal, she hates it. 

"Okay", she knows Moe doesn't believe her, "Well if you don't have them I'll just be on my way"

She starts walking off, leaving Lindsey moping in her doorway. 

"Hey Linds?"  
Slowly, she looks up and the look in Morgan's eyes is unreadable, "Yeah?"  
"Just", her mouth twists, "Just try to get some sleep okay?   
Lindsey smiles sadly, "You get some too"

She hesitantly shuts her door, debating if she should go camp out in Morgan's room. 

She laughs coldly, thinking its ridiculous how weak she's becoming. She doesn't even know what started it, or why. She just wants it to be over with already. 

But it only feels like it's getting worse as she stares up at her dark ceiling, restlessness making its way through her body. She's not getting any sleep tonight, she hasn't been getting sleep for a week. And she's tired, so tired of working and fighting and just living in general. 

She just wants it to stop.


	19. What The Hell Is Going On?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's been so long, exams have been killing me recently. school gets out next Wednesday though, so I promise I'll be updating more often

A loud alarm wakes Hope up, causing her to groan and shake her head. 

"Please god no"

Kelley groans next to her, throwing a pillow over her head. 

"It's not enough"

They've been asleep for 8 hours, and yeah, it definitely wasn't enough. It was nothing but tossing and turning, restless and dreamless sleep that left Hope way more tired than she already was. And making out with Kelley for two hours before they both finally passed out, didn't help. 

"Come on Kelley, we have to go"  
"Fine, but they better not complain about what I wear"

Hope rolls out of the bed, shuffling through the covered floor. They had thrown everything in random places, falling into the bed right when they got in. It was dark too, so they had no idea where anything was going. 

Hope opens her drawers and pulls out a sweater, slipping it on and turning around to the door. She freezes, noticing strewn clothes hanging in random places. 

"Wow, we really must have been out of it", Kelley mumbles, grabbing one of Hope's hoodies and heading out the door. 

She chuckles, walking after Kelley and into the hall. Mostly everyone is walking like zombies, dragging their feet as they continue down the hall. Everyone except Mal, because of course she has the most energy. Mostly everyone looks like they just threw on a sweater or a hoodie and walked out, it makes Hope chuckle again.

"God this was the worst idea ever!" Pinoe yells.   
"Shut it Pinhead, we're all suffering"

////

Alex almost doesn't wake up to her alarm, if Christen hadn't come pounding on her door she wouldn't have made it to the meeting. Now that she's here she wished she hadn't woken up, they've been listening to Carli talk for the longest 30 minutes of their lives. 

"Now like I said, we don't know a lot about the situation-"  
"Oh for the love of God, who does then?"

Laughter erupts through the room as Kling sighs heavily. 

"Oh come on, I'm not that boring", Carli says with her hands on her hips, but she gets responses of disagreement, "Okay fine, Tobin and Ali were the captains of this mission so I'll let them take over"

Tobin and Ali stand, moving to the front of the room while chatter goes through the crowd. Alex is sitting near the back in a corner, wanting to get a little sleep in before she's asked to say or do anything. She listens to Tobin's voice anyways, focusing on the lazyness of it instead of the actual words coming out. 

She hasn't talked to Tobin in a while, not since they came up with the plan to leave. She misses Tobin, even though she's literally in the same room. But she misses the funny, stress-free, caring Tobin that she loves.

And there goes that word again. Love. Alex scoffs, she knows she's in deep by now. She's not even going to try and push the thoughts away, she loves Tobin so much and it's starting to drive her crazy. She want to tell her, wants to so bad but its been two weeks. You don't tell someone you love them after two weeks. 

"So Reign is working with Atlas, we know that much. There are a couple officials in Pride, Dash, and Red Stars working with them too. We learned this when Morgan was going through fake data caches, there was a file hidden in this video file", she clicks a button on a remote and a screen comes out of the wall. 

She has to look away when the video starts, it's one of the 'zombie' ones. Even though she knows it's fake it still creeps her out. 

"Holy shit is that a zombie?" Pinoe practically screams.   
"I'll get to that in a second. Right now I need you all to understand that we need a plan to leave FIFA. I understand that this is our home and that it's been our home for a long time but we're not safe here. Reign and Atlas are gonna find a way to hurt us, we know they're only targeting the military and inteligence, they don't care about the civilians here. If we move them out by the end of next week that'll give us some time to pack our things and come up with a plan"  
Ali nods, clicking the remote so something else comes up, "We don't know why they're doing this, Atlas bought them out somehow and that's all that matters. As for the zombie thing, that's more Tobin's area"

Alex notices the tension in the room grow, a couple people shifting in their seats uncomfortably as Tobin steps to the middle again. 

"First things first, they're not real. It was a computer program, kind of like a cartoon but with a lot more realistic material and a lot of thinking put into it. We thought it was real and that they were being held in a facility a couple hours away from Reign. But the facility that was supposedly holding them was just an old warehouse taken over by a group of rebels. When Reign sent their men in they thought they were actually going to be dealing with zombies, but they weren't. I don't know what happened to them, they were top of the notch military. I'm guessing the rebels were trained a little more than they thought"  
"So who made the video?" Carli asks. 

Alex watches Tobin tense a little, she knows she's been struggling a lot with the fact that Amy is still alive. She hasn't made a plan to get her with them yet, Alex doesn't really blame her though. 

"Uh, don't freak out or anything, but Amy did"

Silence.

"As in, our Amy who disappeared without a trace?"  
"Yeah"

It takes a couple seconds, but eventually everyone starts freaking out and talking to each other. Tobin shakes her head, whispering to Ali who looks shocked. 

"Guys!"

The room grows quiet at Tobin's voice.

"Yes, she's alive and I'm just as shocked as you are. We stumbled on her living arrangement, thing, when we were trying to find the van that Reign sent out. She was hiding in the woods, she was healthy and perfectly fine, we're trying to think of a plan to get her with us as I speak. This was all her doing, and her and Lauren were the ones to find out that Atlas was buying our people out. I don't know why they kept it a secret, I assume it was to keep us all safe but she's alive and that's all that matters"

The room nods in agreement, "Alright. We start tonight, be in the conference room by 8. Our schedules are gonna be pretty messed up for the next few weeks, so get used to it"

Groans echo through the room, but everyone eventually files out of the room and back up to their units. Alex knows everyones going to go and sleep until they're dragged out of their rooms, but now that she's awake she doesn't think she can get back to sleep.

She's walking to the cafeteria, slowly, dragging her feet and yawning every couple steps. Her stomach grumbles, causing her to glare at it. 

"Yeah, I know, chill out", she mumbles to herself, forcing the glass doors open lazily. 

A couple girls are in the line getting food, some passed out on the tables - which Alex thinks is pretty funny - and others just walking around like zombies. 

"Hey Lex, why aren't you going back to sleep?" Mallory's voice causes Alex to jump.   
"Jeez Mal, you scared me", she takes the teenager under her arm, "I can't get back to sleep now, too much on my mind"  
"I understand"

They walk to a table in the corner, both of them pulling out tablets in silence.

"So Tobin, huh?"  
"What about Tobin?"   
"How's it going?"

Alex looks up to Mallory, narrowing her eyes at the teenager. 

"Good", she says suspiciously, "Why?"  
"Just wondering"

She goes back to her tablet, Alex watching her for a second before turning back to hers. 

"How's the downstairs area going?"  
"Mallory!"

////

"I'll shoot you if you shoot me"  
"That's impossible"  
"No it's not, we count to three and pull the trigger"  
"Okay but you could say on three and I would think after three, so I'd be dead before you"  
"So we do it on three, what's so hard about that?"  
"Will you two quit arguing?"

Tobin and Ashlyn clamp their mouths shut once Ali turns around and glares at them. 

All three of them are walking to the armory, Carli needed them to clean some stuff and start packing since they were staying awake. Tobin doesn't think she can go to sleep anyways, and even if she did it'd be pretty restless. 

The three turn the corner down to the armory, the glass doors hissing open once they get there.

"So what should we start packing first?"  
"Non essentials, knives, anything that doesn't deal with guns, explosives, tactical weapons"  
"We might need explosives though"  
"What are we gonna do, blow the Reign company up or something?"  
"Hey you never know what Carli's planning"

Tobin rolls her eyes, walking over to the tactical case. She punches in the code to unlock it and starts pulling things out, putting blades in one pile and explosives in the other. It doesn't take long, FIFA doesn't usually use explosives on missions. 

By the time she's done Ashlyn and Ali are still arguing, but now it's about the most logical way to get rid of Reign. 

"Right so while you two have been arguing like the married couple you are, I seperated blades and explosives. You can do the rest, I'm going to find my girlfriend"

Ash and Ali grow silent, watching Tobin walk out of the armory and down the hall. 

"Losers"

////

"Morgan no you can't do that that's cheating!"  
"No it's not, I didn't see the card!"  
"Oh you're so lying, put it back Moe"  
"I got it fair and square what y'all talking about?"  
"Okay hold up, hold up"

Kelley groans, laying her cards down on the floor in front of her so she can rub her temples. She's been playing Monopoly with Morgan, Steph, Hope, and Sammy since they got out of the conference room. To say it had gotten tense very quickly was an understatement, Hope almost had to hold back Steph from choking Morgan. 

"Why are we even playing this stupid game?" Kelley asks and the yelling stops, replaced by gasps of disgust.   
"This game is not stupid", Morgan emphasizes her point with flaying of her hand.   
"Honestly Kelley, that's like calling soccer stupid", Steph says also.   
"Hey soccer is not stupid"  
"I didn't say it was"  
"Okay, I think that's enough for today, Kelley come on", Hope practically drags her out of the room, the yelling starting back up the second they walk out. 

"So where are you taking me my knight in shining armor?" Kelley asks, skipping alongside Hope as they walk hand and hand down the hall.   
"To bed, my queen", Hope smiles, picking Kelley up and twirling her around. 

Kelley laughs happily, hanging tightly into Hopes neck as they get closer to Hopes unit. When they get to the door, Kelley is slung over Hopes shoulder and lightly tracing a pattern into the soldiers lower back. 

"Keep doing that and I'm gonna fall asleep Kels", Hope says as she sets Kelley down. 

The tiny soldier hangs onto Hope, pulling her down so that their lips latch on together. And just like every single time before, Kelley gets butterflies and she practically melts against her girlfriend. 

"I love you, I love you, I love you", Kelley emphasizes each I love you with a kiss, a large smile spreading across her face.   
"I love you too babe" 

They both smile, Hope back peddling until they both fall onto the bed. 

"Now let me show you how much I do" 

////

"Meghan Klingenberg I swear if you even think about taking that property"  
"I'm allowed to do what I want Morgan, leave me alone"  
"Moes gonna tear you to shreds if you do though"  
"Wouldn't be the first time"

Morgan groans, throwing her cards off somewhere as Kling takes her property. She's kind of tired of playing Monopoly anyways, they've played three different games after Hope and Kelley left. 

"Guys this is getting tiring, I don't think I wanna play anymore", Morgan admits, standing and stretching.   
"Yeah, I don't think I can go any longer without cutting one of your throats", Sammy stands with Morgan.   
"You guys are no fun", Kling stands and stretches her arms, "Fine, lets go get some food or something"

Steph and Mal stand up, following the others out of the unit and into the dimly lit hall. They get halfway to the stairs when Morgan stops in the middle of the hall, a confused look on her face. 

"Has anyone seen Lindsey today?"  
"No, I haven't actually", Kling says, turning around to face the others.   
"Was she at the meeting earlier?"   
"I have no idea, I haven't really seen her much" 

An uneasy feeling settles in Morgan's stomach, she knew something was off about her last night but she just thought that it was her being tired. She was starting to notice something else though, it was something in the way she carried herself and how her eyes seemed dull. Morgan didn't like it, not one bit, so she all but sprinted down the hallway down to her unit. 

She bangs on the door, swinging it open. It's dark in the room, pitch black even, she has trouble finding the light switch for a second but it's no use. The room is totally trashed, clothes and blankets strewn everywhere to show an empty bed. 

"What the hell?" She mutters to herself, backing out of the room and turning around to the group. 

"She's not in there"  
"She could be hanging out with the others, wherever Mal and Kristie are", Kling suggests. 

Morgan's mouth twists, her eyes searching the empty hall. 

"I'm gonna go look for her, wherever she is", Morgan whispers to herself, pushing past everyone and sprinting down the hall towards the cafeteria. 

She bursts into the room, searching around the mostly empty room. With no luck, she sprints back out of the hall and down to the armory where she might be practicing. She almost runs into the glass doors but catches herself and pushes past them. 

"Woah Morgan, slow down there dude", Ashlyn's voice startles her, she almost crashes into the couple but catches herself again.   
"Have you seen Lindsey?" She rushes out.  
"Uh, no we haven't, why?"

Morgan shakes her head, the worry in her growing even more. She starts muttering to herself, running back out of the armory. She runs around everywhere, bursting into random rooms and closets, but she doesn't find Lindsey There's literally no trace of her anywhere, so she goes back to her room and starts searching around. She's spent almost an hour looking around everywhere, she even asked Mallory if she had seen her. 

"Where haven't you checked?" Mallory joined in on finding her, both of them are cleaning up her room and looking for anything that could tell them where she could be.   
"I've checked everywhere, I don't know"

She runs a hand through her hair, gazing around the room one more time. She tries to find a note stuck somewhere, or maybe a hidden message but she can't think of anything. That is until she looks at the picture of a sunset hanging above the bed. 

"Oh my god, that's it!"   
"What?"  
"What time is it?"  
"Like, a quarter to six, why?"  
"I know where she is" 

Morgan runs out of the room, towards the staircase that leads up to the roof. She walks up the two flights of steps to the top, bursting out of the door. The light from the setting in hits her in the face, her vision has to adjust for a second before she looks around the roof. She sees Lindsey standing near the edge, her shoulders slumped and her head hanging. 

"Lindsey!" She yells, but the solider doesn't move. 

Mallory runs up next to Morgan, both of them staring at Lindsey now. Morgan feels her stomach flutter, nothing about this situation feels right to her. 

"Lindsey?" She starts walking towards her best friend, but her broken voice stops her.   
"I'm sorry"  
"What?"  
"Im sorry, I can't do this"   
Morgan laughs nervously, "What are you talking about Linds?"

Morgan watches her take a deep breath before turning around, the sight breaking her heart. Her eyes are surrounded by almost black circles, her cheeks stained with tears and her eyes are so sad. 

"Woah, Lindsey what's wrong?" Mallory asks, both of them stepping forward but Lindsey puts her hand up.   
"Don't- Don't come any closer, please"

Morgan can feel her stomach drop now, she can see the pistol sitting on the ledge. 

"Linds, what are you doing?" She asks firmly, her voice almost catching in her throat.   
"I can't, this is too much, I'm not strong enough Moe"   
"What are you talking about?" Mallory asks, both of them still confused.   
"This war, Mal! I'm tired of it, I'm tired of all this fighting and this pain. I'm tired of fighting, I'm tired of all of these complications that keep happening. Our own people are working against us, everything's falling apart right before our eyes and you all just act like it's okay!"  
"That's what you do during war though-"  
"No! No, you can't just pretend like things are okay, you can't just pretend like people aren't dying out there every single day!"  
"We're not pretending like they aren't Lindsey!"  
"Then why am I the only one that feels like this?!"

Morgan clamps her mouth shut, she doesn't know what to say to her best friend. She didn't know that she was feeling like this, let alone that they were all acting different. But she should have seen it, she should have seen the signs and now it's all coming to her. The short answers, the lack of energy, the emptiness in her eyes and the slump of her shoulders everywhere she went. Lindsey's hurting, her best friend since she was little is hurting and she wasn't doing anything about it. 

"How long have you felt like this?" Morgan whispers, she felt like if she talked any louder Lindsey would break.   
"You remember that thing that happened to Lauré?"  
Morgan cringes, "Yeah"  
"I had it at that point, I don't wanna lose any more people Moe. Not you or Mal, not Sammy, not Steph. I'm just tired Moe"   
"Okay so, how about we just go back inside and we can talk about this-"  
"DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? I'm tired, I don't want to do any of this anymore. I don't want to work this out! I want to just, leave!"   
"We need you though-"  
Lindsey scoffs, turning back around towards the sun set, "Right, like I matter to any of you"

Something inside of Morgan clicks and sets off, every muscle in her body tenses and she feels anger boiling in her stomach. 

"YOU DONT GET TO SAY THAT, you don't get to decide how we feel about you! You're my best friend Lindsey, you're lots of people's best friends and you can't just stand there and tell me you don't matter! Cuz you matter like hell to me, not just because we've known each other since we could walk but because I love you! I love you and I'm not gonna stand here and watch you throw your life away. We care about you, and we need you. You're my rock Lindsey, my rock, my shoulder, my escape, you're everything to me! There's plenty of girls inside that could tell you the same thing. And I get it, this war is tiring and it's gone on for too long but it's ending soon Linds! It's all gonna be over and we can go back to doing nothing but kicking a soccer ball around and staying up until it gets light outside! Just, please don't do this" 

She's lost it, it all just comes tumbling out and she can't control it. There's tears pouring out of her eyes, she doesn't want to lose Lindsey to this. She doesn't want to lose Lindsey at all and she never thought it would come to this. She thought Lindsey was fine, she thought everything was fine and now that she's here, begging her best friend not to take her life she realizes that she's not fine either. 

Lindsey is silent, and she is for a while. Morgan's scared she's gonna grab the gun and pull the trigger or jump over the ledge, but the only movement is her turning back around to face Morgan. 

"I'm so sorry"

Morgan's about to run towards her to stop her, but Lindsey runs into Morgan's arms in a bone crushing hug, sobs ripping through her body. Morgan wraps her arms around Lindsey, sobbing along with her. 

"It's okay, you're okay", she sighs and pulls Mallory in the hug, "We're all okay"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao who thought I was actually gonna kill Lindsey


	20. Plan A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so school finally ended, I now have all the time in the world to finish these stories!

"What about Gulf City?" Alex finally speaks up, causing the room to go silent.  
"Florida? You wan't us all to move to Florida during this massacure?" Carli seems slightly taken aback.

They got back into the conference room an hour ago, getting to work as quick as possible so they could leave. They start evacuating the civilians tomorrow, which is going to be an absolute mess but they'll make it work somehow. 

"It's a total ghost town, no one has lived there for over a hundred years"  
"I thought the point of moving was to  
avoid the enemy? Going to Florida would just be going straight into them"   
"It was just an idea, it's the only ghost town I can think of right now"  
"There's plenty of ghost towns, choosing which one is the biggest problem", Tobin says as she walks to the front of the room towards the map, "If we get out some teams we could go north and south, we need to be as far away from the corrupted Sentinel and Atlas so I suggest we stay in the mid west or we go up north or down south"  
"Where are we going to find the supplies to do this?"  
"We search the labs and warehouses around the area, maybe going as far as New York. There's over 500,000 military personnel in Sentinel so we could just work with them", Tobin explains as she circles areas on the map.   
"New York is Atlas territory, theres no way we can get past their defenses", Abby speaks up from her seat in the back.  
"Then we cancel out all the Atlas territory, we go for the West Coast and down in Central", Tobin takes a black marker and puts x's over the North Eastern states.

Alex watches carefully as Tobin works across the map, there are lots of states that Atlas has taken over, but Sentinel seems to have a lot more land in general. She's never really been outside of FIFA besides Reign, but there seems to be hundreds of blue flags on the map.

"How many people do you really have in Sentinel?" Alex whispers to Carli.  
"Too many to count. There's hundreds of bases in the West coast, and there's even more in the Central. We usually only work with two other companies besides Reign", Carli walks next to Tobin and points to Oregon and Florida, "Thorns and Pride"  
"Tobin mentioned the Thorns once, they seem like the only not corrupted Sentinel company", she thinks for a second, "Does everyone name things after soccer?"

Carli laughs and moves out of Tobin's way, Alex finally noticing that half the team has moved to the front of the room. Ashlyn moves around the board with Tobin, marking off certain places on the map. 

"Alright then ladies", Carli booms to get everyones attention, "Let's get to work"

Cheers echo through the room and Alex watches everyone unfold into their work modes. Clipboards and pieces of paper are passed around, but Alex has no idea what to do or where to even start with their new mission. She was never one for tech work, Atlas always just told her what to do and she'd do it. Sadly. 

"Hey Alex can you come help me with this?", Tobins' voice grabs her attention and just like that, she's off to work.

////

It took six hours for the team to tire out. Everyone was either asleep in their chairs or standing around like zombies with only a little energy left. Tobin was still sitting in front of the map, her eyes lazily grazing across all the flags and pen marks that she and Ashlyn had made. She slowly turned her head around, laughing at the amount of strewn paper and fallen heads. 

"Why did we think that was a good idea?" Sydney asks as her head hits the back of her chair.   
"Because the sooner we get done with this the sooner we can leave", Moe's voice almost scares Tobin, she hadn't heard the young girl talk the entire day. She hadn't even seen Lindsey recently either, which is weird because the two are usually attached at the hip.   
"Yeah well I think it's time to call it a day, I don't think any amount of coffee could help wake any of us up", Carli stands up and stretches slowly, grabbing the attention of a couple people. 

Soon everyone but Ashlyn and Kling are out the door and going back to their rooms. Tobin was almost too tired to go back up to her room but Alex was asleep in her lap. 

"Lex", she whispers, "Lex come on we gotta get up"  
"No I don't wanna", she mumbles and cuddles closer to Tobin.

Tobin sighs and shifts so her arms are under Alex's legs and back. She lifts Alex off her lap and carries her out of the room. She decides against going up the elevator because she doesn't want to wake Alex up. She groans loudly when she sees the stairs in front of her. 

By the time she reaches the fourth floor her calfs are burning, but Alex managed to stay asleep the entire time. Tobin sighs in relief when she reaches unit 13, glad that Alex still hadn't put a passcode on it. She presses the wall next to the door and they slide open, revealing a completely trashed room. 

"Christ Alex, do you not know what cleaning is?" Tobin whispers as she steps over piles of clothes and papers. 

She finally reaches the bed, laying Alex down carefully before stretching her arms out. She's about to try and walk back out of the room when she feels a hand hook into her shorts.

"Stay with me", Alex mumbles when Tobin looks down at her.  
"Alex-"  
"Please, I don't want to be alone", Tobin figures Alex is completely awake now that she's forming full sentences. 

Tobin sighs and slips out of her shoes quickly, causing Alex to smile widely and scoot closer to the wall. Tobin lifts the blanket up and slides in, Alex immediately laying her head on Tobin's shoulder and wrapping her arm around her stomach. Tobin slides her arm over Alex's shoulder, running her hand through the taller girls hair. 

"Goodnight Lex"  
"Goodnight Tobs"

////

Lindsey hears a knock on her door, not really caring who it is. Well, until she hears Morgan's voice and she perks up slightly. 

"Hey Linds, can I come in?"  
It takes a lot of energy, but Lindsey eventually gets it out, "Yeah sure"

The door opens and light comes pouring in but it disappears quickly as Morgan shuts the door. 

"Jeez okay, uh where are you?"

Lindsey lets a small smile stretch across her lips, the first one in a couple of days. It's pitch black in her room, it has been since Morgan pulled her off the roof and made her stay in here. Lindsey appreciates how much Morgan cares, and she definitely appreciates the effort she made to not let her do something stupid. She just wishes this feeling would go away, that she could just be happy and feel free. 

But it's not that easy, it's never been easy. She gave up everything she had ever wished for to get her and her friends to safety. She's sacrificed a lot in the past seven years, and she thanks whatever god is out there that Morgan's still alive. 

And that was a completely different thing. Morgan made Lindsey feel different. Like she belonged, like she was safe and at home. If anyone else had come up on that roof Lindsey would've pulled the trigger without a second thought. But seeing Morgan stand there all rigid and worry filling her eyes she couldn't do it. Morgan's her reason for living, she's the reason she keeps fighting and fighting. Sure, everything's caught up to her now and she seriously just kind of wants to go to sleep and never wake up again, but Morgan keeps her from doing that. 

"Just turn on the light Moe"  
She scoffs, "Uh, that'd be easy if you actually had a light on in the first place"  
"It's on the wall behind you"

She hears Morgan shift around for a second, and then her light comes on. She's glad it's broken so it's not that bright. 

"Wow, you look like shit", is the first thing her best friend says. 

And it's true, she feels like it too. She's done nothing but sit in the dark trying to cope with her feelings. Didn't really work out that well since Morgan had to go to the team meeting. 

"Yeah, thanks", Lindsey rolls her eyes, sinking farther into her bed. 

////

"Kelley, get a camera, now"  
"We only have polaroids on this floor"  
"Even better"

Kelley sighs and jogs to a storage room next to the elevator. She rummages around for a second before she pulls out a black polaroid. She jogs back to where her girlfriend is standing, now noticing that it's Alex's unit. 

"Hope what the hell are you doing?" Kelley whisper yelled.  
"Just give me the camera", Hope snatches the camera from Kelley, earning a scoff and a glare.   
Kelley looks into the unit, seeing nothing but a mess everywhere, "Are you here to document a tornado or something?"  
"No, Kels, look", Kelley follows Hope's finger to the bed pushed into the corner of the room. 

Kelley almost gasps loudly when she sees Tobin and Alex tangled up with each other and the blankets. Tobin looked peaceful, like she had no worry in the world at all. The creases were gone from her forehead and Kelley swore she saw a faint smile on her best friends face. And Alex was actually smiling, the permanent scowl now gone from her face.

"Holy shit, Hope hurry and take a picture before they wake up"

Hope quickly snaps a picture, but the flash was way brighter than she expected. Tobin grumbles and shifts, causing Alex to mumble something and open her eyes. When her eyes land on Hope and Kelley standing there with a camera her scowl came back, but ten times scarier. 

"Uh, hey Alex, good morning", the couple says together.  
"What are you doing", Alex asks through gritted teeth.  
"Just checking up on you is all, last night was kind of tiring", Kelley laughs nervously.

Tobin is slightly awake by now, her calm face turning to confusion and anger when she looks at the couple.

"They're cinnamon rolls, they won't do anything right?" Hope whispers to Kelley as they begin backing up.

Tobin and Alex share a look and scramble out of the bed quickly. 

"Shit, angry cinnamon rolls! Angry cinnamon rolls!" Kelley yells as she runs out of the unit and to the right. Hope took to the left of the unit, running around a corner from what Kelley could see.  
"You're a dead squirrel Kelley!" She hears Tobin yell.  
"Get back here you giant!" She also hears Alex yell, obviously they split up to catch Kelley and Hope.

Kelley can hear Tobin catching up and decides to pick up her pace and turns around a corner towards Carli's unit. When she reaches ten she bangs on the door, Carli almost immediately opening. 

"No time to explain, can I hide in here for a second?"  
Carli sighs and steps aside so Kelley can run in, shutting the door quickly just as Tobin rounds the corner. 

////

"Hope, get back here!" Alex yells as she runs around the corner and catches a glimpse of Hope.   
"Not in a million years Morgan!"  
"Did someone call my name?" 

Alex's eyes widen as Moe steps out of her unit, almost causing the two to crash but Alex quickly turns and spins around her, yelling an apology as she continues down the hall. She sees Hope turn left, which is odd because she didn't think there was any units past thirty. When she turns the corner she catches a glimpse of a body before she collides with it and falls to the ground with a loud thud. Alex groans as her elbows and ribs hit the hard floor, the wind getting slightly knocked out of her.

"God dammit Hope you are so lucky-", Alex throws herself ontop of who she thinks is Hope, ready to strangle her, but realizes that it's Tobin.  
"How did you-"  
"Oh my god did I hurt you?"

Alex frantically searches Tobin's body for any visible cuts or bruises, but Tobin grabs Alex by the collar to get her attention again.

"I'm fine Lex, just hit the ground a little hard", she says with a laugh.

Alex laughs also, getting lost in Tobin's voice and her stare, not even caring that they're inches apart. The two grow quiet, Alex now noticing her hands on either side of Tobin's head. She can feel Tobin's hands just above her waist, gripping her slightly as to keep her planted on the ground. Alex doesn't even feel herself leaning closer to Tobin, she's too lost in her stare to notice anything at all. 

"Team meeting in ten!" Carli's voice travels through the halls, causing Alex to jump slightly.   
"Uh we should probably go-", Alex tries to stand but Tobin's hands squeeze her hips and keep her on the floor, "Tobin?"  
"I don't care about the meeting right now", the tan soldier whispers before leaning up and kissing Alex.

Alex is caught off guard, she hadn't expected Tobin to take control like that. After a moment Alex finally realizes what she's doing and eagerly kisses Tobin back. The kiss is deep and yearning, both the girls putting all of their emotions into it. Alex's hands find their way into Tobin's hair while Tobin's hands pull Alex even closer to her. 

"Oh come one guys seriously?" Pinoe's voice makes Tobin and Alex jump apart, "You have two perfectly good units, with soundproof walls, to do this in"  
"Pinoe who're you talking to?" Crystal rounds the corner and bursts out laughing at the sight of a flustered Tobin and angry Alex, "Oh my god that is the funniest thing I have ever seen"  
"You're welcome", Hope and Kelley say together as they pop their heads around another corner.   
"You planned for this to happen?" Alex asks with a crazed expression.   
"Hope just wanted to take a picture", Kelley laughs and walks over to Tobin, picking her up and handing Alex a polaroid.   
Alex smiles at the picture, she's tangled in the sheets with Tobin and sleeping peacefully, "Still gonna kill both of you"  
"Yeah yeah, have fun doing that", Hope grabs Alex's hand and hoists her up, quickly walking away with Kelley. 

Crystal smirks at the pair while Pinoe shoots a glare at them. Tobin sticks her tongue out at them, turning her attention back to Alex. 

"Come on Baby Horse, we've got a meeting to get to", somehow, she gets wriggles from under her girlfriend and pops up. 

Alex grabs her hand and they walk down the hall together, following the girls walking out of their units. Everyone's seems mostly rested, it's a little later than they would usually wake up so they extra time must have freshened people up. Especially now that Kelley is going around doing crazy stuff she would normally do, Alex hopes she's been doing better ever since her fight with Hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so in the middle of writing this and You and I, I started a gangster AU set in New York and it's practically The Godfather but gender swapped. How would y'all feel about that??


	21. The Calm Before The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shorter chapter, but I swear the next one will be like, awesome. and heartbreaking.

"Julie I swear I'm fine"  
"Tell me that when the doctors agree"  
"They've been trying to tell you that for the past two hours, I'm fine as long as I don't over work myself!"  
"It's not enough, they're gonna have to do more tests or something-"  
"JULIE"

Christen knows she's crossed into dangerous territory once her tone hardens, but she doesn't really care right now. Well, she thinks she doesn't until Julie turns to her tone hardens, but she doesn't really care right now. 

"I'm fine", she sneers out, "If the doctors say I am, then I am. I feel fine, I look fine. I'm. Fine"

It comes out a lot harsher than she had intended, but she needs Julie to understand that she really is fine now and she can go out on her own.

Something in Julie's demeanor changes and Christen instantly feels bad. 

"Right, I'm sorry. You're fine, I'll see you later"

She storms out, leaving Christen alone in the infirmary. She didn't mean to upset Julie, but all the peskering and standing over Christen like a child was getting annoying. She's an adult, she can handle herself. She handled herself fine before they joined FIFA anyways, she has no reason to be sorry. 

But then again, it's Julie and fuck she really loves Julie. They may have only been together for a short time but Christen is nowhere near ready to mess that up now. 

It takes all of her strength to unattach herself from all the chords and get out of the room, but once she does she feels a new kind of energy run through her as she chases after her girlfriend. 

"Julie!"

She can see her blonde ponytail swishing around in the slight sea of citizens moving around the area. She tries to speed up but the crowd gets thicker and thicker as they near the center block. 

She ends up getting pushed along with the crowd towards the hangers. She tries to leave and push the other way but glares and yelling from other soldiers push her into a large truck with a bunch of other citizens. 

"Hey, you don't understand I'm a soldier! Christen Press, FIFA recruit!"  
A large man with a thick beard and icy cold eyes forces her back into her seat, "That's what everyone else has been saying. Sit down and make this easier for all of us"

She's about to fight back but the guy closes the latch to truck, darkening the room. 

"What's going on?" Christen asks the nearest person.  
"They're moving us to another facility, said we would be safer if we weren't here"

Christen can feel the panic building up in her stomach. She knows she's not supposed to be here, she just needs to get people to believe that she's actually a soldier. She looks around the dark truck, realizing there's no other way to get the soldiers attention than pounding on the back door. So she does. 

It takes a minute, but eventually the latch opens back up and the same soldier from before stares up at her. 

"Christen AnneMarie Press, I'm under Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn in the FIFA Sentinel Force. If you don't believe me get Julie Johnston down here, she's my girlfriend"  
"Look, we were supposed to have these trucks out 10 minutes ago. I don't care who you are or who your girlfriend is, you can complain once we get you out to the other facility. Until then, I'm gonna need you to sit your ass down and shut up"

Christen scoffs at the soldier, disbelief at his manners towards her. But she shuts up anyways, sighing loudly as she sits back down. The latch closes again and she can feel the truck start up. 

She knows she's in for a long ride so she pulls Julie's old Santa Clara hoodie closer to her and shuts her eyes. 

////

"I didn't think this many people actually lived her"  
"You don't know a lot of things about this place Alex"  
"Shut up"

Alex playfully shoves Tobin into the wall as they walk with the crowd. Carli assigned them to the West wing, which Tobin remembered as much smaller than this but things have obviously changed. 

The two continue down the long hallway with the crowd moving next to them, Tobins hand tapping lightly against the rifle in her arms. Carli also made them suit up completely just in case something went wrong but Tobin doubts anything is gonna happen. The only thing they've had to deal with the past two hours is confusion, which they had to reply very vaguely to. 

"Oh my gosh I can't wait until this is all over", Alex groans as they enter the West Hanger.  
"We can leave as soon as this group gets in the trucks, I promise" 

Tobin pulls Alex to the sidelines of the hanger, walking along the edge until they're at the large opening where most of the other soldiers are. Her eyes sift through the crowd until she finds Brent, the commanding officer of the West wing. 

"Officer Brent!" Tobin almost forgets her formalities, Carli and Becky are so laid back sometimes she forgets she's actually in the military.  
Brent's large figure turns around, along with a couple officers near him, "General Heath"  
Tobin smiles widely as they all salute her, "At ease officers, how are we doing?"  
"We only have five more trucks to get through, besides that the East wing is ten minutes behind and the North had a bit of a scuffle so they're trying to sift through that"  
"Anything I need to worry about in the North?"  
"Nothing Hope couldn't handle, she radioed in a couple minutes ago and said they were back to normal"  
Tobin nods slowly, "I'm going to head to the South wing and see if they're doing alright. Radio if you need anything"  
Brent smiles widely and salutes her again, "Will do General" 

Tobin nods to the others, turning on her heels and heading out of the hanger. 

"General, huh?"  
Alex's voice causes her to jump, she had forgotten she was standing behind her, "Uh, yeah"  
Alex looks at her expectantly but she stays quiet, "There something you're not telling me?"

There's a lot Tobin isn't telling her. She never thought it was necessary to explain it, it never really came up anyways. She worked hard for her title and all of her decorations, but it was never a light subject. She was thrown into a high level of Sentinel at much younger age than everyone else. It didn't necessarily happen on purpose, she just worked hard and Carli practically took her under her wing the first year. It didn't take long for her to become a field soldier, and she got recommended for a lot missions the second year. But she still made mistakes, she's not the perfect soldier and she hates admitting that. All of the awards and recognition she's gotten were because of her hard work. 

She's not huge on the formal and protocol thing though, she only gets called general in serious situation and during training. 

"It's just a formality, they think since I'm so decorated and stuff I should have the title"  
Alex is silent for a second, the only sound is the clanking of their armor, "Why don't you like being called the proper title?"  
Tobin shrugs, "Just seems unnecessary"

They resume their walking quietly, Tobin quickening her pace a little so the silence would end faster. 

"So does that mean you're more important than Carli?"  
Tobin sighs heavily, "Technically yes"  
"Then why aren't you the captain?"  
"They were in the military long before me. Plus they're older and they have better leadership skills. I'm more of a lone wolf, I always did special missions on my own before you"

Tobin almost smiles, Alex really had changed her life. 

She takes Alex's silence as the end of the conversation, which she seemed to have planned perfectly as the hanger entrance to the South wing came into view. 

"General! Over here", Kelleys voice grabs Tobin attention in the far corner of the full hanger.  
"How are you on timing?"  
"Five minutes ahead, we just sent in the third wave of trucks. We should have the rest out in the next half hour General"

Tobin was never used to having her friends call her by her title, it was even weird for them but apparently Carli was going in full force today. 

"Good, if you get done early head to the North wing. Hope is having some trouble keeping everyone contained and I'm sure she could use your help"  
"Understood", Kelley salutes Tobin quickly and turns back to the unit behind her. 

"What now?" Alex asks Tobin as they stand quietly in the corner of the hanger.  
"Now we wait"

////

"Ash"

"Ash"

"ASHLYN"

Ali lightly taps the back of her girlfriends head, pulling her out of her thoughts. 

"Ow, jeez Princess what the hell?"  
"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes", Ali glares hard at her, "Carli needs us in the private hanger. Something about the chopper not starting" 

Ashlyn groans loudly, sitting up off of her bed. 

"Come on you lazy bum", Ali grabs Ashlyns hand and drags her out of their unit, down the hall, and into the elevator to the roof.  
"The one day I don't wanna be in the chopper, you pull my to the chopper", Ashlyn grumbles.  
Ali gasps, feigning disbelief, "Where is my Ashlyn and what have you done to her?"

Ashlyn rolls her eyes, placing a light kiss on Ali's lips just as the elevator doors open. 

"Ashlyn get your ass over here and fix this damn chopper!"  
"Oh boy"

Carli only uses that tone when she's agitated and angry, neither of which are good on her. 

"What's the problem?"  
"Damn thing won't start and we need you up and flying with the trucks in 20 minutes", Carli grunts as she lightly kicks the step bar on the side.  
"Okay, how about instead of kicking the already damaged chopper, we sit down and calm ourselves a little", Ashlyn says carefully, pulling Carli away. 

The captain grumbles something about fixing the chopper and being up in 20 minutes before storming off the roof. 

"Okay then, let's see what's wrong with this guy"

////

"What do you mean she's on one of the trucks?"  
"She kept trying to tell me she was part of the military and I wasn't believing her because of all the other civilians trying to tell me the same thing"  
"And you didn't think twice when she said to call Julie and Carli down here to prove it?"  
"Uh, no ma'am-"  
"Don't ma'am me, get the hell out of my sight!"

Alex's eyebrows shot up to her hairline at Tobins voice, she hadn't ever heard that much authority in her tone before. 

The soldier nods and scurries away, it's kind of funny considering he has at least half a foot on Tobin and his muscles are practically the size of her head. 

"So what do we do now?"  
"I don't know babe, Ashlyn should be up and following them now so we can just radio in and tell her to keep an eye out when they land"

Tobin rubs her temples with her hand and stares out at the last of the trucks that are leaving. 

"Hey, it'll be fine", Alex says as she runs her hand over the small of Tobins back, "Come on, you're tense and stressed out"  
"Wait where are we-"  
"Hush, no more talking okay?"

Tobin squints her eyes at Alex but shrugs and follows her anyways. Alex pulls her out of the hanger and back towards the center block, through the winding halls until they get to the FIFA wing, and up the stairs until they're both back at their unit. 

"Take everything off"  
Tobin's eyes practically pop out of her head, "What?"  
"Your armor, off", Alex states plainly with her arms crossed.  
"Okay", she drawls out before slowly pulling the heavy suit off of her body. 

Alex's eyes are glued to the tan soldiers body, slowly grazing all over her lean and toned muscles. 

"Now what?"

Her head snaps up to Tobin's eyes, a smirk spreading across her face. She quickly reaches around her back and unlatches her suit, pulling it off of her body. 

"Now, we shower"

////

The warm water running over Tobin's tight skin was slowly bringing her a little peace. Alex's hands rubbing slowly into her muscle was a lot more peaceful though, Tobin didn't know she had the ability to work through her tension like this. She'd been so busy walking around all day she hadn't even noticed how stressed her body was. 

Alex's hands work their way down from her shoulders to her lower back, snaking around her waist until Alex is pulling her against her front and placing light kisses across her shoulder. Tobin leans back against Alex's naked body, lacing her fingers into the hands on her hips. 

"I would've been a lot more willing if this is what you meant by showering", Tobin says with a grin spreading across her lips.  
"I thought you got the idea at 'Take everything off'", they both chuckle, Tobin turning in Alex's arms. 

Tobin can't help but smile as she stares into Alex's eyes. 

"What?" Alex asks with a smile. 

A thousand thoughts run through Tobin's head. She wants so bad to tell Alex, to just smother her in love but she doesn't know if she should. It's only been two weeks, somewhere around there. 

But as she watches the water run down Alex's soft, smooth skin with that twinkle in her beautiful blue eyes, she doesn't care how long it's been. She can't keep ignoring the pounding in her heart when she looks at her girlfriend. 

"I love you"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you're welcome


	22. Welcome To Hell, Your Death Will Be Right With You

"Assess the situation Tobin!"  
"Don't you think I'm trying?"  
"I've got a man down! Make that two"  
"Atlas at 8 o'clock, they're tearing us apart General"  
"Move to the left flank and get the hell behind something!"  
"General we have to push forward somehow we can't just stay here, we'll all die!"  
"God dammit!"

Tobin pops out of her cover, drawing the attention and the bullets of Atlas to the right flank while the team moves to the left. She manages to get a couple shots in but she doesn't know if they hit anything. 

"Tobin what are you doing?"  
"What I was trained to do!"

Two men lunge at her once she's at melee distance, to which she sidesteps quickly and places two perfectly aimed bullets in the side of their heads. Her Exo suit flashes and she quickly turns around, pounding her fist into the stomach of another soldier and sending him flying back. She takes down three more, well placed shots being the end of them as she moves between covers until she's at the door. 

"What the hell were you thinking?" Kelley asks her the second the team makes it back to her.   
"I'm trying to save what's left of my team, now get behind something or me"  
"What are you-"

Before Kelley can respond, Tobin kicks down the steel door and pulls her rifle up. The flashlight flicks on and reveals nothing but an empty room with a steel door on the other side. 

"This is Shadow Squad, we're in position and outside the entrance. It's clear so far, I need Carli on the line"   
Her earpiece cracks for a second before Carli's voice shouts into her ear, "Atlas has men posted everywhere. We're having trouble getting through the front. How are you on soldiers?"  
Tobin can hear the gunfire and shouting in the background, "I'm down five but we'll be fine, how do you want me to proceed?"  
"If Atlas is smart they'll be holding our people in the lower levels, make your way down there as fast as you can. I don't think they're expecting a stealth team unless the men at the back have already informed them"  
"Understood, I'll keep you updated"   
"Stay alive Tobin, we're gonna need you when this is all over"   
"You too Carli"

Tobin turns back to her team, Julie pushing to the front until they're face to face. 

"Is Christen alive?"  
Tobin knows Julie is still panicking and hurting but all she can is shake her head, "We don't know. Only the bomb squad have made it inside and they're only in the main hall"

Tobin can see the disappointment flash behind the blondes eyes. 

"Let's go get our people back then"  
She smiles and nods, "Move in on my mark"

////

 

48 Hours Earlier 

 

"Amy is being transferred under Carli's command in a couple hours, Cap wants to know when you'll be free to get her back into things"  
"As of now, not for another day. We've got these trucks and a missing soldier to deal with before I get to anything else"  
"Understood General"

Julie nervously picks at the paint on her Exo Suit, she just found out about Christen getting put on one of the trucks, as if her physical condition wasn't worrying her enough. Tobin must notice her nervous habit, she feels a strong hand on her shoulder that grabs her attention. 

"She'll be fine, we'll follow Ashlyn up in the chopper and find her once we get to the facility"  
"Are you sure? What if something happens with the truck? Or someone starts a fight with her? What if she-"  
Tobin widens her eyes at how fast words are pouring out of her friends mouth, "Okay okay, calm down for a sec, yeah? Christen can handle herself, she's gonna be perfectly fine and you can have a totally over dramatic and heart felt reunion once we get our people to the facility"   
Julie takes a deep breath and nods, receiving a pat on the back from Tobin as she slides past her, "Who all is going?"  
"Ash, Ali, Lex, and I so far. We've got one more spot in the back of the chopper so you won't be crammed in one of the trucks"  
"Great, let's go then"

////

"This is Falcon 9, General Heath reporting from FIFA squad. Can someone update me on how we're doing?"  
"We're all on time and on route to the destination, arrival time should be around 17:33 P.M."  
"Two hours on the road? Is there any way to speed that up? This chopper isn't gonna last two hours"  
"We planned ahead for that General, we're taking a pit stop 3 clicks away from the Cali border. Leading truck has chopper oil for you"   
"Wonderful, as you were then. Radio if you need anything" 

Julie sighs, she doesn't think she'll last 2 hours in this cramped helicopter. It's not the big, cool one that Ashlyn helped build. Instead it's just a regular military chopper with five seats and the worst air conditioner in the world. She never thought she'd be complaining about that during the war though. 

"Alright then, everyone get comfortable, this is gonna be a long ride", Tobin says with a sigh as she leans back in her seat. 

Julie's upper lip twitches in disgust, she seriously doesn't want to be up here for that long. But she can't exactly get down now so she stretches her legs as far as they can go, crosses her arms, and closes her eyes. She might as well get some sleep. 

////

When Julie starts stirring awake all she can hear is yelling and the loud chopping of the helicopters propellers. She groggily opens her eyes, feeling a different atmosphere in the cockpit of the chopper. 

"I'm giving you one last chance to respond and get back on the road before we engage and do it ourselves"   
"Tobin if we don't go after them now we're gonna lose them in the woods, Christen might be on that truck"  
"Then get this damn chopper down there!"

Julie sits up, watching the two go back and forth until Ashlyn finally pulls the chopper down towards the ground. 

"What the hell is going on?" She asks over the propellers.   
"One of the trucks went rogue, pulled off the road and went towards the woods. The driver isn't responding and we had five seconds of the radio channel on and all we heard was yelling a gunshot", Tobin rushes out as her Exo Suit starts putting itself on.   
"Did they kill anyone?"   
"There's only one way to find out", Alex mumbles, pulling out her rifle and sitting on the edge of the chopper. 

Julie nods and starts pulling her gear on, her nerves starting to run through her system. She hopes Christen isn't on the truck, lord she hopes she isn't. But she can't think like that right now, not when civilians lives are on the line. 

"Alright, we're gonna have to jump this. Ash can't land the chopper fast enough to stop the truck. Are you ready Julie?"

Julie nods to Tobin, the three of them standing at the edge of the chopper as they get closer to the ground. Julie can see the truck now, it's driving full speed down an area cleared of trees. 

Tobin gives one last look towards the other two once they're right over top the truck, as if to say good luck. Julie sends one back and takes a deep breath before jumping off the chopper and rolling onto the roof of the truck. Tobin and Alex follow swiftly but the three of them are thrown to the side when the truck swerves to the right. 

"Guess they know we're here", Alex yells, sliding to the back of the truck and leaning down. 

Julie follows her while Tobin crawls to the front. They manage to get the back panel open so they can see inside. Julie grabs Alex's arm along with the other side of the truck and leans down into the opening, seeing the terrified faces of civilians and-

"CHRISTEN", Julie doesn't even think about it, she swings her body down and hangs onto the doors of the back of the truck.   
"JULIE STOP"

She's hanging halfway out of the truck when a shot rings through the air, there's a brief moment where she thinks she got hit but she realizes it went right past her head. 

"Julie get back up here!" Alex yells at her but there's no way she can climb back up with the truck moving this fast. 

Christen is in a headlock, a large man with a pistol pointed at Julie is her captor. She feels anger rush through her veins, adrenaline now pumping as she climbs back into the back of the truck. The man shoots again but Julie sidesteps it and slides forward, grabbing the mans hand and twisting the gun out of his grip. He lets out a yelp, caught off guard and receives a fist to the face that knocks him out completely. Pain throbs in Julie's hand but she doesn't care once Christen is practically tackling her to the floor of truck. 

"I love you, I love you, I love you and I should have listened I'm so sorry"   
"Don't blame yourself for this, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that-"  
"Okay hate to break up this reunion but I kind of need some help Julie!"

Julie rolls her eyes, but it's short lived as the truck speeds up even more and the two go sliding out of the bed. They don't have enough time to grab onto someone or something so they tumble out, the hard dirt tearing at the exposed part of Julie's skin. She quickly catches her armor in the dirt and makes sure Christen is on top of her so she doesn't get hurt. 

When they finally stop rolling, they both groan and look up to see the truck skidding to a stop and tipping over on the side. 

"Shit", Julie whispers, punching the pad on her arm and using her Exo Suit ability to sprint to the side of the truck and lift it so it doesn't fall, "Kind of need some help Tobin!"

////

"Give me two seconds!"

Tobin slides the rest of the way off of the truck, she didn't get a good look at the driver or the guy who was inside the truck but whoever they were they're knocked out now. 

She quickly jogs over next to Julie, using all of her strength to get the truck back on all of its wheels. Alex joins them, and after a few seconds of grunting and pushing they get it back up and start pulling people out. 

"Is everyone okay?"

Tobin asks in general and she doesn't receive any negative answers. 

"Great", she huffs heavily and wipes the sweat from her forehead, "Babe can you radio Ashlyn and tell her to get some more trucks back here?"  
"Yeah sure", Alex steps to the side and starts talking into her earpiece while Tobin goes back to making sure everyone is okay. 

She's angry to say the least. Angry that she let this happen, angry that it did happen, and angry that somehow Atlas or some other rebel group managed to get inside Sentinel. She's better than this, FIFA is better than this, she doesn't understand how this happened and it's seriously pissing her off. 

"Don't blame yourself for this, we couldn't have known these guys weren't Sentinel", Alex's voice startles her, but she relaxes once she feels her girlfriends hand on her back.   
"But we could have, we could've had tighter security or something-"  
"Tobin, we had the tightest security we could've   
had. These guys were obviously professional, it happens baby" 

Tobin sighs but nods anyways, she knows Alex is right but it's still unsettling to her. If these guys got in there's no telling how many other people there are undercover. They can't be the only ones, it just doesn't seem possible. That just makes Tobin even more nervous. 

She's about to kiss Alex's cheek when she hears a couple screams and rustling around on the other side of the truck. Tobin and Alex reflexively pull out their pistols and jog to the other side of the truck, neither of them liking the sight in front of them. 

The civilians are backed up against the side of the truck, most of them shielding themselves away from the gun pointed at them. The man that was driving the truck before is using Christen as a body shield, a heavy stream of blood running down the side of her face as she struggles to get free from the man. 

"Put the gun down you idiot", Tobin growls.   
"Yeah, over my dead body", he says as he visibly makes his grip tighter on Christen.   
"I would gladly make that happen", Julie pushes past Tobin and towards the man, her gun raised towards him. 

Tobin tries to pull her back by the hook in her suit but she doesn't react fast enough. The man lowers his gun towards Julie's leg and pulls the trigger, the sound of the bullet hitting her skin makes Tobin cringe. 

"NO", Christen screams and thrashes around as Julie falls to the ground, her body turning limp. 

Tobin closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, she knows the guy didn't hit anything important but hell is gonna be unleashed once Christen gets free. Alex is still next to her, neither of them knowing what to do with one of their best friends life on the line. 

"Tell you what, I'll give you your precious civilians back. If, and only if, you let me go with your precious friend here"  
Tobin's jaw clenched as a smirk spreads across his face, "I can't let you do that"   
"Shame, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do anything more harmful"

Tobin doesn't know how to react, she can't. There's no way she's getting out of this with Christen safe and she knows it. She knows it by the way the smirk practically jumps off his face, the way Alex tenses up again, the way his gun raises and Christens eyes go wide. 

She knows it by the way the shot rings out and everything seems to flash before her, and then everything goes dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yell at me in the comments, I know I deserve it :)


	23. Long Time No See

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh
> 
> so
> 
> hi?
> 
> i don't really have an excuse or explanation, but it has been a v e r y long time and i apologize a thousand times over. soooo, here's a short chapter before i post the next one tonight. hopefully people will still read this.

Chapter 23

"MOTHER OF FUCK"  
"Julie could you at least try to-"  
"FUCKING HELL"  
"Tobin don't you dare-"

Alex rubs her hand over her face, she didn't think her girlfriend was this over dramatic. She had a damn bulletproof vest on and her armor, she seriously couldn't have gotten hurt that much. 

Julie on the other hand, she could understand that. The bullet had gone completely through her leg and if Ashlyn hadn't landed fast enough, Julie would probably be in an infirmary attached to blood bags. She started waking up a couple minutes after Alex got Tobin to sit up properly, but she passed back out from the pain of her wound. Lucky for her, Alex knew a thing or two about gun shot wounds and stopped the bleeding. 

"Make it stop, please make it stop", Alex almost screams when Tobins grip on her hand tightens even more, she didn't think she was this strong either.  
"Dude quit your whining, I only have two more latches and it'll be off", Ashlyn smacks the back of Tobins head and returns to her task; pulling Tobin's armor off without bruising her ribs even more. 

Alex was scared that the bullet had gone through both plates because of how close range it was, but by some miracle it only got to the top layer of the vest. It was still enough force to send her flying back into the truck, it almost gave Alex a heart attack and she didn't even realize she had rushed to her side until the truck sped off. 

With Christen inside of it. 

She just feels so god damn stupid, and horrible, and like a failure and all those horrible things. She let her best friend down, her sister, the one person in the world besides Tobin and Mal and Abby that she loves. And there's no telling when she'll get her back, or if she even will get her back. She managed to get a tracking device on the back of the truck but it was quick and messy and with her luck it's already fallen off and in the middle of nowhere. 

It hasn't completely gotten to her head yet though. Sure, she's come to terms with the fact that she messed up really bad and managed to lose her sister, but the fact that she could be dead hasn't gotten to her yet. That's the only reason she hasn't broken down yet, the only reason she's able to stay focused on Tobin. 

There's a part of her that believes she'll get Christen back. That Carli will come up with some grand plan to get her back and take Atlas down along with it. But it's a very small part of her, it's the part that has faith in Sentinel and refuses to remember everything that Atlas had done. 

But the part of her that knows Christen will most likely be dead by the time they get to her is overpowering and she doesn't know if she'll be able to make it through the day without realizing that. 

////

"How are you feeling?"  
"Fine, besides my chest feeling a little bruised"  
"Well your tests came back negative to any serious damage, I'll give you some medication to speed up the healing process for your ribs and you can be in your way. I recommend you take it light though, nothing too serious for at least a day"  
"You got it Doc, thank you"

Tobin sighs heavily, sliding off bed with the pill bottle in her hand. Ashlyn had to fly her and Julie back to FIFA, while Ali and Alex took over getting the trucks to the new facility. She couldn't imagine what Alex was feeling, Christen was now missing and there was no way of telling where that guy took her. He had to be Atlas though, rebel groups wouldn't want anything to do with Sentinel military personnel. 

Tobin shakes her head, not really wanting to think about anything but resting right now. 

"How is Julie doing?" She asks the doctor before he has a chance to disappear.  
"She's out of surgery and resting right now, luckily the bullet didn't get anything important and she's not paralyzed anywhere. She's definitely not gonna be able to be out in the field for a while though", he says with an apologetic smile.  
"Alright, thanks"

She makes her way out of the infirmary and back to the FIFA wing which is oddly quiet, but then she remembers that everyone is either resting or out helping pack up. Just as she's about to start heading to her unit, Carli's voice echoes through the halls out of the intercoms. 

"All FIFA agents currently not working please report to the conference room as immediately, i repeat all FIFA agents currently not working please report to the conference room"

Tobin groans loudly, turning on her heels and making her way to the conference room down the hall. Lindsey appears out of a unit, startling Tobin. 

"Oh hey Tobin, sorry if I scared you"  
"Hey Linds, it's cool. It feels like we haven't talked in forever", Tobin says with a chuckle.  
"Yeah, that's partly my fault. I haven't been in the best mental position", Tobin now notices the dull tone in Lindsey's voice.  
"Are you okay?"  
"Yeah, well not really right now but I will be soon. Everything's just really been taking a toll on me lately"  
"Hah, tell me about it" 

They finally round the corner to the conference room where most of the team is already sitting down and conversing, 

"Alright everyone, I don't know if you've heard but Christen has been taken from us from an unknown source. Julie is injured and won't be able to help with this situation. Lucky of us, Alex attached a tracker on the back of the truck before it got away. We've been tracking it and it's heading towards New York, which is some serious Atlas territory. Honestly, we don't know how to go about this so we need everyone's hell with this"  
"What would they want with Christen? And why all of a sudden?" Pinoe asks from the front of the room.  
"I don't know, none of us know. It seemed to be easier while everyone was frantic and moving"  
"So what do we do?"  
Carli shakes her head, "I don't know"  
"We take the fight to them"

All heads turn to the back of the room where Tobin is standing. She puts on her best commanding face and lifts her head. 

"We take the fight to them. This war has to end now. For 7 years we've fought and fought, too many people have died and too many people have sacrificed their lives to this war. It's time Atlas goes down, and anyone who sides with them. It's time we end this war and start rebuilding humanity as a whole. Even if we die trying"

////

It's cold. Dark. The air is wet. She can feel water dripping down from the ceiling onto her face. The sensation of the freezing water rolling down her cheeks slowly wakes her up. It takes a moment, but soon her eyes adjust to the dimly lit room. 

It's stone. A small, circular room with a metal door opposite of her. A singular light falls from the ceiling, doing nothing to illuminate the room. She can feel something restricting her, her eyes trailing slowly up from the ground, along her legs, her torso, and then to her arms that are being held to the wall by metal shackles. She doesn't notice the numbness in her shoulders until she sees that there's nothing keeping her upright, she's hanging freely from the shackles and it hurts. 

"Fuck"

She picks her feet up, slowly sliding them from against the wall until she's standing, trying to put less stress on her shoulders and back. She doesn't remember how she got here, doesn't remember anything except seeing a bullet fly into Julie's leg and then getting knocked out. 

So there's really only one explanation. 

She was captured, her girlfriend is either dead or extremely injured, FIFA has no idea where she is, and she's being held by a hostile rebel group or Atlas. Atlas seems more probable though. 

It's not until she starts thinking that she starts to panic. Because how the hell did this happen? How the hell did FIFA not catch an undercover Atlas agent, and how the hell did they let them get into the civilian trucks. 

"Hello?" She tries, which is probably a really bad mistake because that's how everyone dies in the movies. 

Her panic turns into adrenaline, and she tries everything possible to get out of the shackles. They're bolted to the wall and skin tight, if she tries to wriggle her wrists anymore she'll probably end up with cuts everywhere on her wrists. 

"I wouldn't try to that if I were you, you're gonna want to save your energy for what we have planned for you"

Her blood runs cold. She knows that voice. 

He laughs a cold, evil laugh, "Yes, that's right. Long time no see Christen. I imagine you're very shocked right now" 

The metal door swings open, bright light shadowing the face of the large figure walking towards her. It's not until he gets a few feet away from her that she can see his squared jaw, his messy stubble, those dark, evil eyes, crooked smile, and the large scar on his forehead, caused by a bullet. 

"Servando?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> since school is ending i'm gonna this story and the others ones i haven't finished, and then maybe write some preath because yes i fell on the preath train and talex is kinda dead now (but not dead in my heart lol)


	24. Nice Torture You Got There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're triggered by mentionings of blood, torture, or pain in general you can skip that part. 
> 
> besides that, the ending to this chapter is something a lot of people have been waiting for ;)

"Alex!"

"Alex help me!"

"Please! Do something!"

She opens her eyes and the world is burning. Flames engulf her but there's no heat. She can see her sister screaming, reaching out for her. There's blood dripping down the side of her head, just like there was when she last saw her. 

"Alex please!" 

Her green eyes are boring into her own blue ones, pain written all over her face as more and more blood starts coming out of random places in her body. 

The flames cease suddenly and Christen falls to the ground, Alex rushes to her side even though she's knows it's too late. There's nothing she can do. 

And when she looks up there's more looking at her. There's Servando, there's Mal, and Abby. Christen disappears from her arms and turns to a black cloud, floating up and forming her again but standing at the group in front of her. 

"Save me Alex, save us" 

////

Alex's eyes open slowly. It's almost dark, she can tell by the way the light from the hallway is slowly making its way through the crack in her door. 

She doesn't consider it a nightmare. Yes, she hates seeing Servando there like that, and she definitely didn't like the way Christen just died in her arms, but if anything it's an eye opening experience. She needs to do everything she can to get her sister back, and she needs to forget about Servando. 

There's things in the world that people never forget. Alex will never forget the first goal she scored, when she was only 3 feet tall and just starting to love soccer. She'll never forget her first day of high school and how she was practically cherished as a freshman. And she'll never forget the way Tobin's eyes coaxed her out of pulling the trigger of her gun when she first saw her. 

But there are some things that need to be forgotten, and Alex is ready to forget. 

So she does. She pulls the sheets back from her bed, standing up slowly and stretching her body before she pulls on an outfit from her dresser. She swings open her door, looking down the hall to see some of the unit doors open. She can hear some of the girls talking in one of the rooms, but she doesn't know which one. 

"Well good afternoon sleeping beauty", Kelleys voice startles her from behind.  
"Hey Kel, where is everyone?"  
"Everywhere. Most of them are still in the conference room trying to figure out a plan but we've broken off to get some rest", she starts walking down the hall, Alex following suit.  
"Where's Tobin?"  
"Conference room, I think. That's where she was when Hope and I called it a day"  
"Have they gotten anywhere with a plan?"  
"Last I heard they had it narrowed down to like three or four ideas", Kelley shrugs, stopping at Hopes unit, "If she's not in there she's in her unit or in the armory"  
"Alright, thanks", Alex smiles and starts making her way down to the conference room, finding the door wide open and many raised voices going back and forth. 

When Alex looks inside, she was not expecting what she saw at all. 

There was paper strewn everywhere. And by everywhere, it was literally all over the tables and the floor and even a few pieces were stuck in the ceiling somehow. Morgan and Lindsey had their hands laying on a table, Mal was practically covered in stacks of paper, and Carli, Julie, Becky, and Abby were yelling at each other simultaneously. 

From what Alex could make out, they were arguing over a bomb, something about a giant truck, and an air strike. 

"Hey", Alex tries to get their attention, but only Mal looks at her with an exasperated look.  
"Hey!" She tries again, this time Lindsey and Morgan slowly lifting their heads to look at her. 

Alex sighs, marching up to the table where the four were at, "HEY"

Abby and Becky flinch back, Julie practically falls back in her chair, and Carli whips around to throw a punch at Alex but she quickly catches it with her hand. 

"You're gonna wake the entire block if you keep yelling like this, what the hell is going on?" 

Carli clears her throat, quickly removing her hand to straighten out her uniform, "Uh well, we were arguing over the best way to go about this mission and I guess we didn't realize how out of hand we were getting"  
Alex's face turns to a glare, "Yeah, obviously. As much as I would love to help figure this plan out to save my sister, I think everyone needs to call it a night. It's fairly early, so if we go to sleep now I think we can get started early and get a plan finished by tomorrow night. Does that sound good?" 

No one really replies, just nods their heads and start making their way out the door. 

"Has anyone seen Tobin?" Alex asks before everyone makes it out the door.  
"She left to go shower 15 minutes ago", Carli yells back, rounding the corner to go back to her unit. 

Alex sighs loudly, trudging out of the room and back down the hall. She quickly runs up the four flights of stairs and down the many halls to get to the showers. She can hear the shower running, and when she steps inside she can see that no one else is in there besides Tobin. 

A smile stretches across her face as she quietly shuts the door to the room. She treads lightly, even though the sound of the water hitting the floor was loud enough to cover her footsteps. When she reaches the last stall she stops, not really knowing what to do now. 

She's thought about having sex with Tobin, maybe thought about it a little too much at very wrong times but still. She's thought about it and she doesn't really know how to go about asking Tobin if they're on the same page. They've showered together a couple times though, but they never got more than lingering hands and heated making out. 

And yeah, they haven't been together for a very long time at all, but their relationship wasn't exactly a normal one. Nothing during the war was really normal. 

But did she really want to do this? Of course she wanted to have sex with Tobin, she'd been dreaming of it the second she met her really. But was she rushing it because of the war? She didn't feel like she was. And maybe it was just coincidence that they were gonna have to go on a very dangerous mission in two days, but still. 

Alex doesn't know how long she's been standing there, and since Tobin was already in here a while before she makes the quick decision to strip her clothes and hang them near Tobins in the opposite stall. 

She takes one last deep breath before pushing past the curtains. Tobin has always managed to take her breath away, no matter what the situation is. But in that moment, Alex felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. The water running down Tobins back was mesmerizing, and so was the way the muscles in her back and arms moved as she massaged shampoo out of her hair. And to Alex, Tobin had the best body in the entire world, and the definition in her legs was really not helping the breathing situation going on. 

After just looking at her for what seems like forever, she gains the courage to step behind her and slither her arms around her girlfriend, breathing in the scent of the ocean that her shampoo brings. 

Tobin let's out a yelp that causes Alex to chuckle, but relaxes as soon as she realizes who it is. They stand there for a while under the stream of the water, just taking each other in. It's not until the water starts turning cold that Tobin turns around in Alex's arms and smiles. 

"You should probably wash up before the water turns to icicles", she says with a smile.  
Alex chuckles, "Well if you insist"  
"Oh but I do", they both laugh at Tobin's terrible mocking. 

Alex starts reaching for the shampoo behind Tobin, but her girlfriends hand quickly stops her. 

"Let me"

Alex raises an eyebrow but retracts her hand anyway, turning around and allowing Tobin to lather her head. Her fingers work through her head, massaging her scalp and the top of her neck. Alex feels blissful, she feels like Tobin must have magic hands or something because she feels like she could fall asleep right there in the shower. She doesn't even notice that she's done with her hair until Tobin's hands start running down her arms and her back, rubbing small circles where she goes. Alex turns around so Tobin can get her front side, but the generals demeanor changes. 

"Uhm", she stutters, "Do you want me to- I mean, can I- uh-"  
"Yes, Tobin, you can", Alex chuckles, watching her girlfriend's face turn into a nervous laugh.  
"Right, okay, so uh", Tobin nervously reaches for more soap and hesitantly runs her hands along Alex's shoulders.  
"Tobin", she lifts her chin up with her finger, "It's okay"

She plants a lingering kiss on Tobins lips, trying to reassure her that it is indeed, very, okay. Tobin smiles, her mood finally changing to a more confident one as her hands run lower over Alex's front side. Alex has a hard time not letting out a low moan when her hands massage her nipples. Tobin knows, a smirk washing over her face shows that. Her hands start moving lower, massaging over her strong abs and back down her backside, skillful hands slowly massaging her ass. 

"Tobin", Alex says with a slight loss of breath, her lips attaching to Tobin's neck and collar bones. 

A low moan escapes Tobins lips, her hands moving back up to trail just over Alex's hip bones. Alex wraps her arms around Tobin's shoulders, smashing their lips together. They both sigh, feeling as if they haven't really kissed in forever. 

The kiss quickly turns heated, Alex pushes Tobin to the wall of the stall and unconsciously slides her thigh between Tobin's legs. She doesn't realize she did until a moan comes out of her lips, her grip on Alex's hips tightening. A low burning starts in Alex's stomach at the sensation of Tobin moaning into her own mouth. She takes the opportunity to trace her tongue along Tobins lower lip, almost instantly gaining access and fighting for dominance with the soldier. 

"Alex, wait", she stops instantly, pulling back in fear. She knew she shouldn't have done this, she should've talked to Tobin.  
"I'm sorry, shit, I shouldn't have- fuck i'm so sorry", Alex starts, but Tobin quickly pressed her lips to shut her up.  
"Not here", she whispers simply, her hands teasingly trailing back down Alex's stomach and to her inner thighs.  
"Right okay, yep, not here let's go"

////

Christen knew she had information that Atlas wanted pertaining to Sentinel and FIFA, so there was no way Atlas would allow them to kill her. However, the same knowledge that was keeping her alive was most likely going to bring her great pain sometime in the near future. She was sure that Julie was coming for her, so, she just had to stick it out until then. Do it for Julie. 

As if on cue, Christen could hear a door opening and closing before the hood was pulled from her head and earplugs were removed from her ears. Standing there was someone she’d never expected to see again. 

“Colonel Chapman,” Christen spat.  
“Sergeant Press,” the colonel said in an amused tone. 

Colonel Chapman had been Christen’s supervisor throughout her time with Atlas and the two had never gotten along well. The colonel had always seemed borderline insane and scared the shit out of Mal the first time they met. When Christen escaped the Atlas base with Abby, Alex, and Mal, Colonel Chapman was the last person she saw. After all that time she’d spent running to escape the colonel, here she was, about to pry information from Christen in any way she can. 

As far as Christen could see, there wasn’t anything in the room except for herself, the chair she was strapped to, an empty table, and the colonel. There didn’t seem to be much of anything that Colonel Chapman could really hurt her with. Maybe this will be easy, she told herself to keep her spirits up. She knew full and well that this wasn’t going to be easy. 

"Where is Servando?" Christen asks before the Colonel has a chance to speak.  
"Else where, don't worry, you won't be seeing him again any time soon"

Christen glares at Colonel Chapman, knowing that there's more to it than that. With her luck, Servando will probably be the one torturing her until Sentinel comes to get her. 

“You have some information I want,” the colonel started by stating the obvious. “Now, you can tell me what I need to know from you and you can go on your merry way, or you could make this difficult and make me have to hurt you.” The colonel moved so that she was standing in front of Christen and got in her face. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?” 

Christen remained silent, refusing to say anything and satisfy Colonel Chapman. 

“Silent, eh?” 

A loud smack could be heard throughout the room as the colonel backhanded the brunette strapped to the chair. 

“It’s okay, I’ll get you to talk.” The colonel leaned down to whisper in Christen’s ear. “I do know the best way to hurt you after all.” 

With those final words, Colonel Chapman left the room, leaving Christen to her own devices. She was beginning to become nervous thinking about the horrors that were in store for her. Atlas knew her biggest fears and greatest fears. Colonel Chapman could manipulate her in ways that no one else could, and the thought of that was terrifying. More than anything, though, Christen was afraid of herself. 

Spilling any of the information she had on Sentinel could lead to bad things for her, and worse things for Sentinel. She may lose the trust of everyone she holds dear because she wasn’t strong enough. There was also the possibility that Mal, Alex, and Abby could be seen as traitors as well. Those two things and the thought of Julie possibly leaving her were what she decided was going to keep her grounded. 

'Last until Julie comes for you'

After a few more minutes of sitting in silence, Colonel Chapman came in with an assortment of knives and a black duffle bag. Christen was almost relieved to just see the knives. She knew it was going to get worse, but for now a few cuts were nothing. She’d suffered much worse in previous battles for Atlas and was used to it by now. Even the sound of Colonel Chapman sharpening the knives bugged her more than the idea of going through a cutting session did. 

“I figured we could start off easy,” the colonel explained. “Maybe you’ll change your mind before we get to the really… brutal stuff.” 

Colonel Chapman made her way over to the empty table and put the knife sharpener down next to the duffle bag. 

“You know, you’re not as valuable as you think you are.” 

This catches Christen’s interest since she knows she has information they want and she was the only one they captured, wasn’t she? 

“We managed to get another one of you Sentinel scum into the base. That blonde one, Julie, I think her name is?” 

Christen’s heart dropped and she visibly paled, much to the liking of the colonel. They couldn’t have captured Julie, she got away. She had to have escaped with Tobin. Julie was safe. 

“I’m sure you’ll want her to be safe, right? I mean, you are lovers after all.”  
A wicked grin spread across the colonel’s face as Christen’s heart broke in front of her.  
“It’s a shame she’s being subject to much worse tortures than you are. She got thrown in a room with General Tancredi and you know how she gets.” 

Christen wasn’t sure what to think. Julie was hurting and it was all Christen’s fault. If she’d just stayed in that hospital room instead of running after her girlfriend, none of this would have happened. She hoped that she and Julie could stick it out until help arrived for the two of them.  
Suddenly, screams could be heard from the room next door and Christen knew it was Julie. 

“No,” she whispered. “No! Don’t hurt her!”  
She struggled against the straps that held her to her chair in a pitiful attempt to escape and save her girlfriend from days of endless pain. Colonel Chapman just laughed at her. 

“Do you really think you can save her?” the colonel asked. 

Christen stopped struggling and sunk down into her chair. The colonel was right; she couldn’t save Julie even if she tried. That would most likely get them both killed. 

“Now, let’s get back to where we were, shall we?” Colonel Chapman said, raising the small tactical knife in her hands to Christen’s right jawline. 

She pressed down and slowly slid the knife down the length of Christen’s jaw, causing the brunette to clench her teeth in an attempt not to scream out in pain. The colonel began laughing again upon seeing Christen in pain. 

“I’m sorry, does that hurt?” she taunted as she moved the knife to cut Christen’s shirt off in order to expose more skin for her to cut. 

For several hours, Colonel Chapman taunted and cut Christen until there was nowhere else to cut, going back and forth to the duffle bag for different knives as she went. The colonel wasn’t satisfied, however, because the most she earned from the torture subject were whimpers and a few tears. She wanted to hear the brunette’s pained screams, so she went back over to her black duffle bag on the table and pulled out a large bottle of rubbing alcohol. 

“Why don’t we clean you up a bit?” 

The colonel unscrewed the cap to the bottle and removed the seal that showed the bottle was brand new. Christen was dreading what was to come as the colonel approached her with that evil smile on her face. She brought the bottle above her victim’s head and began pouring the contents out. The clear liquid travelled down Christen’s body and the girl cried out as it seeped into her cuts.  
Colonel Chapman continued pouring the rubbing alcohol around the soldier’s body until the was bottle was empty. She dropped the empty bottle and returned to the black duffle bag on the metal table, grabbing several packages of quick clotting gauze. The packages of gauze were opened and placed over the various cuts on Christen’s body to stop them from bleeding. Patches of skin were burned from the reaction between the chemicals and her blood, earning the screams the colonel wanted from the brunette torture subject. 

“There, all better.” Taking a step back, the colonel examined the work she’d done on Christen. “Changed your mind yet?”  
Again, Christen was silent.  
“Hm, that's what I thought. Shame"

All Christen could do was take a deep breath and prepare herself for what was to come next. 

////

Okay so Tobin was nervous. She didn't really know why, well, of course she knew why but still. She didn't know if it was more not having done anything with anyone in a while, or if it was because it's Alex. Or both. Probably both. 

Still, she hadn't done anything remotely sexual in a long time with someone, so her skills were probably not up to date. Or something like that. 

But that was besides the point, this was Alex she was talking about. Like sure, she'd thought about doing this with Alex plenty of times and she's been wanting to talk to her about if for a while now, but she was still nervous. What if Alex didn't like it? Or maybe Tobin wasn't good enough or something like that? 

She couldn't really back out now, well she could but she doesn't really want to because Alex is swishing her hips in a very exaggerated way as they start walking to Alex's unit. 

Lucky for them, no one was in the hall to question the fact that they were wearing nothing but towels, or why both of their faces were flushed. 

Tobin didn't start getting seriously nervous until they were both inside the unit. 

Alone. 

With the door closed. 

And Alex completely naked in front of her. 

"Tobin?" Her head flys up to Alex's eyes, "This isn't an art museum ya know? You don't have to just look, you can touch too" 

Tobin raises an eyebrow at that, chuckling nervously. 

Alex also raises an eyebrow, "You know we don't have to do this if you don't want to"  
Tobin starts stuttering, "What? No, no that's not what i was, no I do it's just-"  
"Just what?"  
She struggles to find words, "Uh, well, I just, I haven't really done anything, in a long time so"  
"So you're saying you're not ready or? Cuz seriously Tobin, we don't have to-"  
"Okay no Im just gonna stop you right there"

With whatever courage she has, she drops the towel from her body and walks towards Alex, her hands finding her hips as she crashes their lips together. Alex is slightly taken off guard but quickly regains herself, her arms finding their way around Tobins neck. 

It gets heated fairly quickly, which was kind of expected because they're both standing there naked with a room to themselves. 

Tobin thinks she's totally in control and about to speed things up, well, that is until Alex turns them around and pushed Tobin into her bed. 

"Okay, wasn't expecting that at all", Tobin mumbles, but she's not really complaining. 

She watches Alex crawl over her with a face that is seriously turning her on right now. Her eyes are focused on Tobin's lips and her mouth slightly parted, it takes everything inside of Tobin to not take her right then and there. Instead, she lets Alex attach her lips to her neck, managing to get a low moan out of her. 

"If you want me to stop-", Alex starts but Tobin quickly interrupts.  
"I don't"

And with that, Alex starts peppering kisses down Tobins body, probably leaving a couple marks but Tobin really doesn't care. Her back arches off the mattress when Alex takes her nipples into her mouth, swirling her tongue and slightly biting at them. 

"Oh fuck Lex"

Tobin was feeling all sorts of emotions, she didn't know if it was going to be possible to feel more, but once Alex starts kissing down her thighs and her hip bones she proves herself wrong. 

She's got the sheets of the mattress in her fists, and if Alex doesn't hurry up she feels like she's gonna lose her chill. 

"Alex I swear to god if you don't-", her sentence is cut off when she feels Alex run her tongue along her clit, a loud moan escaping her lips, "Okay, holy fuck"

She feels Alex smirk against her center, her tongue moving up and down skillfully between her folds. 

Moans fill the room, and Tobin can't thank FIFA enough for making these rooms sound proof. 

It doesn't take long for Tobin to orgasm, especially once Alex gets a finger inside of her while her tongue is still doing some very unholy things. And once she does go, she swears she feels like she's on cloud nine and there's no way she's coming down for a while. She doesn't even notice Alex kissing her way back up her body until her face is hovering above her, a smile plastered on her lips. 

"You taste really good babe", Alex says lowly, her smile growing even wider.  
Tobin smiles also, running her hand through her girlfriend's hair, "Where in the hell did you learn to do that"  
"I just listened to whatever made you moan the loudest", Alex says with a wink, laying her head in the crook of Tobin's neck.  
"Oh no, what do you think you're doing?"  
"Going to sleep?"

Tobin chuckles, swiftly switching their positions so she's hovering over Alex, a lustful look in her eyes. 

"Who said we were done?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big shoutout to my friend Maura ( aka thisusernameistakenagain ) for writing the Christen torture scenes because she's good at it and i am not at all lol.


	25. Determinate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as a warning the torture scene in this (thank you maura), is a tad bit graphic and if you have bad triggers with that this is also a warning that it's just gonna get worse. cuz maura really knows how to write torture scenes lol.

"I'm telling you, I don't think this is a good idea"  
"No one thought this was a good idea, dont you think we'd rather be at base than risking our lives for a very dangerous scouting mission?"  
"Oh shut up"  
"You're the one who started talking!"  
"Both of you shut up!"

Tobin snaps, sending a warning glare to Pinoe and Mal as they trudge deeper into the forest. 

The tracker from the truck had finally stopped in Chicago last night, Carli and Becky didn't even hesitate to send the three out to go scout around the second everyone woke up. Now it's dark, and Tobin feels like no matter how intense she puts her night vision on, she can't see a damn thing. It's quite literally pitch black, which is extremely unsettling considering the circumstances. But this was for Christen, and this was for Alex, who was creating a plan back at FIFA as she spoke. 

"How long have we been walking?" Mal whines.   
"3 miles, there's only another half to go before we get to the edge of the forest"  
"Okay well don't you think we should make a better approach than this? Instead of, ya know, walking straight down the cleared path to wherever the hell we're going? They're smart enough to plant motion trackers and cameras", Mal states matter of factly to Tobin.   
But the general simply holds up a low glowing device from her wrist, "Dont you think I thought of that before we put our lives on the line?"  
Mal is silent for a second, "Touché"

////

“That is literally the stupidest plan ever!”  
“Can everyone just calm down please?”  
“Julie I swear to god, I don't care if you're crippled I will deck you right in the face”  
“Oh my god”   
“Dont you dare jab me with that crutch, I'm warning you”  
“Julie stop it!”  
“Alright, I warned you Johnston!”

Carli and Becky have been trying to calm everyone down for five minutes, and have had no luck at all. 

Alex is sitting in the back corner of the room with Ashlyn, both of them watching their team argue over how to go about planning their attack. She hasn't really been paying that much attention, all she's heard was a plan with a bomb, one with a really big plane, or a stealth mission which she really isn't against. But no one can seem to agree on one plan. 

Alex feels Ashlyn sigh next to her, watching curiously as she stands up and walks to the front of the conference room and pulls out her phone. She covers her ears, Alex following quickly, and presses something on her screen that sends out a very unpleasant siren sound that causes the entire room to go quiet and cover their ears. 

"Split up into different groups, get with whoever agrees with you on what plan to make and make a debate. I need pros and cons on each plan, and why you think it's the best one. You have three hours, go"

Alex raises an eyebrow at the authority in Ashlyn's voice, even Carli and Becky are stunned in silence. Everyone else, not so much. She guesses they've had encounters with Ashlyn's commanding side. 

It takes a couple minutes of very crowded shuffling, but eventually everyone settles into 3 groups based on what plan they think is the best. Everyone except Carli and Becky. 

"Why aren't you two splitting up?" Alex asks curiously.   
"We don't care how we get Christen back, we just care that she gets back in one peace and that Atlas goes down as we leave", Carli says plainly.   
"So, if I suggested that we challenge whoever is in charge of Atlas to an arm wrestling match, you'd agree to it?" Alex tries at lightening the mood a little.   
Becky chuckles, "We'd tell you to make it work, but only as a last resort"  
"Good to know"

////

“Remember how you had to fight someone on initiation day to see how you’ve improved in hand to hand combat?” 

Colonel Chapman pulled her arm back and punched Christen in the face. 

“You went up against Corporal Morgan.” 

Another punch to the face. 

“I never expected you, of all people, to excel in hand to hand. I’d like to see how you do against me.” 

The colonel kicked Christen in the stomach, sending her and the chair onto their backs before walking over to untie the girl. She rolled out of the chair and weakly pushed herself off the floor into a fighting stance.   
They circled around each other for a few moments before Christen made a well-placed strike at the colonel’s solar plexus. The colonel doubled over, having lost her breath from the punch. 

"Good move, Press," Colonel Chapman wheezed out. However, she was still laughing. 

Without warning, the colonel stood up and kicked Christen in the chest as if she were trying to burst through a locked door, sending the soldier flying backwards. Her head hit the wall behind her with a loud thud, and she crumpled to the floor. Before she could even stand up to fight again, the colonel was already there to use her head as a soccer ball. She felt blood coming from her mouth, nose, and now the back of her head, as well as the cuts that had previously been made on her body. 

The colonel took a step back and laughed at how haphazard Christen's nose looked. 

"Won't be picking up any girls with a face like that, that's for sure." 

She bent down and picked Christen up by the collar of her shirt, pinning her to the wall. A couple of punches were thrown into Christen's gut and a foot met her right knee, dislocating it. Christen let out cries of agony, not even bothering to hold it back anymore. 

"Ah, yes, that's what I wanted to hear." 

Christen was then twirled around so that her front was pressed up against the wall. Her left arm was brought behind her back at a very painful angle to dislocate both her elbow and shoulder. The colonel released Christen's arm and let her crumple to the floor in a heap. 

"Ready to tell me yet?" she asked in a sickeningly sweet voice. 

Christen shook her head yet again. 

Colonel Chapman simply shrugged and walked back over to the duffel back to retrieve a whip, a long metal rod, and some rope. She placed the metal rod in it's designated spot on the wall before dragging Christen over to it. Christen hung onto the bar as her wrists were tied to it, whimpering slightly at the thought of what was to come. Her hair was moved so that her back was completely bare. Just hold on until they can get to you, she repeated in her head several times. 

Seconds later, the crack of the whip could be heard and Christen could feel the skin being ripped off of her back. Again and again the cracking noise could be heard, and Christen's morale plummeted with each strike to her back. She started sobbing as the barrage continued on her raw and bloodied back. She wanted it to stop more than anything.

There was a pause in the attack and Christen unintentionally let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t see what Colonel Chapman was doing, but she could hear her leave the room. Her position was incredibly uncomfortable on the joints of her arm and leg that hadn’t been dislocated while she was being beaten. She wondered how long they would leave her hanging like that.  
Colonel Chapman didn’t come back for quite some time. To Christen it had felt as if she had been gone for days, but she knew that couldn’t have been true. Her perception of time wasn’t currently at its peak, being held captive in a windowless room and all.

“Have you decided to spill yet?” The colonel sounded very impatient.  
“You wish.” Christen was slightly surprised by the gravelly sound that was present in her voice from the screaming and lack of use for an extended amount of time. It almost reminded her of Alex.  
The colonel smiled that awful smile of hers. “I think it’s time we amped things up a bit.” 

////

"Look! I see lights up ahead"  
"Where?"  
"Through the trees, to the right"  
"Oh shit, you're right. Come on, let's pick up the pace and find a good spot to scout"

Tobin's legs start moving faster, so Mal picks up her pace to keep up with her commanding officer. 

She was extremely surprised when Alex and Abby let her come on this mission, she had volunteered on a whim for being bored out of her mind at security. She'd done nothing but desk work, and since the civilians were all gone and moved there was nothing besides the armory and hanger to look after. 

Besides that, she'd done absolutely nothing. She'd gotten a taste of how FIFA trained and battled at Reign and when they were escaping, and she really wanted to get out on the field to prove how she could benefit the team. How she was going to do that on a scouting mission, she doesn't really know. She just knows she's ready to kick some Atlas ass already. 

"Mal, drop off to the right into the woods. There's some detectors and cameras up ahead at a gate and i'm gonna get as close as I can. Pinoe, drop off to the left. I need you both up in the trees, just in case. And turn on your Exo Ability, I changed it to thermal and night vision camoflauge so no one can see you", Tobin whispers lowly, her voice sounding almost robotic in Mal's earpiece. 

Pinoe drops off almost immediately, but Mal stops in her tracks. 

"What if you set something off? The base is only half a mile up ahead, we won't be able to run away fast enough"  
"I have a plan, trust me"

Mallory huffs out a breath but runs into the treeline anyway, finding a climbable tree a couple feet away. She looks to the other side of the woods and flips to thermal to try and see how far Megan had moved up in the trees, but Tobin wasn't kidding when she said thermal vision wouldn't work. She looks down to her arms, surprised that she's not even visible to herself. 

"How far up do you want me to move to the gate?" Mal asks Tobin.   
"Just don't get too close, there's trackers all over. I'll send you both the tech so you can see"

Mal's wrist lights up lowly and illuminates a tiny map, tons of red dots popping up the closer she gets to the gate. She gets about 30 feet from the gate before she stops, not wanting to risk setting anything off. Instead, she plops down on a strong branch, pulls out her rifle, and watches Tobin. 

The general pulls her rifle out, slowly walking up to the gate as she starts tapping at the hologram illuminating from her wrist. Mal cocks her head in curiosity when she takes her wrist and points it towards the gate and around it, a green light coming from her armor. 

"What in the hell", she whispers to herself, her curiosity growing even more when the red dots on her map disappear. 

"Alright, the base is about three fourths of a mile ahead. This gate wraps around the whole thing, it's all one big thing. If you touch it I'm sure it'll set something off. I glitched the sensors and cameras long enough for us to get over, but there's bound to be patrols on their way to check it out"  
"So what do we do?" Pinoe asks.   
"Uh, well. We jump"

////

"Julie"

"Juulie"

"Julieeee"

"JULIE"  
"FUCK WHAT?"

The already crippled soldier practically falls out of her chair, Alex snapping her out of her thoughts. 

"Are you okay?" Alex asks, a look of worry on her face.   
"Uh, yeah, i'm fine. If anything I should be asking you if you're okay", she says as Alex helps her back into her chair.   
"I'll be fine when Christen gets back-"  
Julie cuts her off, "If she gets back"  
"She will", Alex says quickly, "But I know you're taking this hard. So really, are you okay?"  
"Im just her girlfriend Alex, you're practically her sister. You're the one who should be asked this kinda stuff", it's not that she's not okay, or that yeah, she's hurting and taking it hard because she has no idea where or what Christen is doing, but she doesn't really want to talk about it for fear of more intruding thoughts coming into her head. 

She feels a hand on her shoulder, Alex's of course. 

"Exactly, you're her girlfriend. Never in my life has Christen ever dated or thought of dating anyone. Well, except this one time but it was a dare and she felt so bad that she broke up with the guy like five minutes later but that's besides the point. Christen loves the hell out of you, and I can tell you feel the exact same way. I've lost people, and yeah she's my sister but I believe in her and her strength. Plus, I haven't felt some weird physiological disturbance, so I'm 100% sure she's alive. Maybe not perfectly fine, but she's alive and we're gonna get her back"

Julie is stunned, she hadn't expected that much to come out of Alex's mouth, let alone something about Christens life before she came to FIFA. She doesn't really know what to say so she's stuck staring at Alex with wide eyes. 

Alex's face turns even more worryful, "Was that too much? Should I have not said that?"   
"No", Julie says plainly, but then realizes that it probably didn't make sense, "No, thank you for that"

Alex sighs happily, but her smile quickly falls again as Julie gets out of her seat with a distant look in her face. 

"Julie?"  
"Yeah, yeah just-", she shakes her head, "Excuse me"

She rushes out of the room, her injury willing, and heads towards the elevator up to the units. She doesn't really know where she's going, or why she's going to the units. Her mood had changed so quickly she didn't even realize it until she was alone in the elevator. 

She was scared. Really scared. What if Christen wasn't okay? What if she was dead and Alex just wasn't telling her or Carli and Becky knew something that they weren't telling her? 

She hasn't known Christen for that long but fuck, she just loves her so much she can't picture the rest of her life without her. 

She doesn't realize how scared she really is until she's in front of unit 23, Christens beach sunset door staring right in her face. 

She only thinks for a second that this might be a bad idea and reminding herself of Christen is just gonna make things worse. But at this point she doesn't really care. She wants Christen back, she's going to get Christen back. And there was only one way she could think of that was going to give her a chance to actually fight and get her girlfriend back. 

So she doesn't go into Christens unit. 

Instead, she turns around and heads to the infirmary, nothing but determination on her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any guesses as to what julie is gonna do?


	26. Half A Rescue, Half A Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's a long chapter for ya with a lotttttt more movement in the story :)

"Have you decided to spill yet?"  
Silence.   
"Just as I thought. Well, you leave me no choice"

Chapman began untying Christen from the bar she’d been hanging from and reset her knee back into place. Turning around, Christen noticed that Colonel Tancredi had joined them. Together, Colonels Tancredi and Chapman took Christen to another room.

This room looked like it was straight from a movie. There was a flat platform that was slightly tilted with straps on it. Wires hung awkwardly from the ceiling, connecting to the platform Christen knew she was about to be strapped to. 

Christen was worried about this form of torture more than the others, specifically about her little heart issue that Atlas had no idea about. The stress she’d experienced since she’d been here was bad enough, but the electricity would surely fuck her up. 

Tancredi and Chapman pushed her back up against the surface of the cold, metal platform and began strapping her wrists, ankles, midsection, and head down to the platform. They took some of the hanging wires from the ceiling and sticking them to various parts of Christen’s body. Just to make sure Christen didn’t accidentally bite her tongue off, they stuck a piece of leather between her teeth. 

The electrocution started off slow, with questions being asked and the voltage being put into her body low. It was almost more of an annoying buzz in her body than it was a painful torture. As time passed, and Christen wasn’t exactly sure how much, the voltage would increase and the questions were starting to dwindle. At some point Christen figured they were really doing this for fun and that a confession would just be a plus. 

She doesn't know how long she stays there, electricity practically running through her veins. She does know that it's been at least three days, and she's had no food or water. 

She prays harder today, prays that Sentinel has a plan to get her.

////

"So what you're saying is, we don't have a plan?"  
"Tobin hasn't come back with anything yet, we don't know what we're up against or what is actually at the base"  
"These are times I wish satellites still worked"

Kelley rubs her temples roughly, thinking that if she rubbed hard enough she could force the headache out of her head. She's had no luck the past two hours. 

"So what do we do? Just wait for them to get back to us?" Hope asks coldly.   
"Actually", Carli says, her back turning to everyone as she displays what looks like a webcam in the large screen at the front of the room, "I managed to get the cams on their helmets working so we have a live stream feed of what they're seeing"

She turns to the table in front of the wall, tapping around it lightly, "Tobin? Can you hear me?"  
There's a moment of static silence, but eventually Tobins lazy voice cracks through the speakers in the room, "Loud and clear Cap, can you see everything clearly?"  
"Well I can't really see anything but a lot of darkness and trees if that's what you mean", Carli says matter of factly.   
"Oh, right, sorry", the camera shifts down to Tobins wrist where she taps around until the live feed turns to night vision, everything clearer now. 

Kelley didn't know what she expected to see with the Atlas base, but she definitely wasn't expecting to see so many lights and such a tall wall. It had to be at least eight stories tall, and there were no ledges around it or anything. Just a plain, flat, cemented wall. 

"I've managed to hijack our cloaks to shift with our movement, as long as we stay still or move really slowly we're invisible to the naked eye. We're gonna try to scale the wall with grapples, the only entrance is extremely guarded and there's no way we'd be able to get past it, even with the cloaks", Tobin explains, practically whispering into her mic.   
"What are you gonna do once you scale it? It looks like it just goes straight over"  
"We're guessing that it's just flat ground on the other side, so we're probably gonna have to scale the other side as quickly as possible and find a place that isn't being guarded quite as heavily"  
"Did you remember to silence your helmets?" Kelley asks abruptly, not wanting them to get caught for something so simple.   
"Yes, mom, I remembered to do that. If I hadn't we'd be dead by now"

Kelley relaxes, leaving the rest of the talking to Carli and Becky. She doesn't realize the absence of Alex until she feels a body sink into the chair next to her, smelling strongly of ocean and vanilla. 

"What's going on?"  
"Carli got their live cams to work, we don't have a plan and we're trying to get as much intel as possible"  
"Which one is Tobins?"  
Kelley chuckles, "The middle one"

They both sit and watch as the three shoot their grapples onto the top of the wall, immediately jumping and practically running up the wall. When they reach the top they don't get an immediate view of the base there's a space between each side that looks like it's meant for sharpshooting or guard watching, it reminds Kelley of the wall back at Reign. It takes them a minute to unhook their grapples and get themselves situated again, but once they head to the other side the air grows thick and heavy. 

The land is flat, the only buildings farther back to the left and scattered around the middle. But it's not empty, hundreds of tanks and extremely advanced looking war machines are lined up perfectly in the flat dirt. There's even more soldiers walking around, some checking on the machines and some doing drills with their respective teams. 

The three are equally as quiet as everyone else, Kelley guesses no one knows exactly what to say. 

That is until Carli clears her throats and turns to everyone in the room. 

"We need a plan. Pronto"

////

"Julie you do realize that what you're doing is extremely dangerous right? You could die, or even worse paralyze yourself"  
"How is paralyzing myself worse than dying"  
"You're a solider, you're meant to move around and do things. Being paralyzed would keep you from doing that for the rest of your life. And i'm sure dying means you go wherever you go without the injuries you've sustained so far"  
"...Point proven"

Julie slides off the examination table, throwing herself into her crutches and walking to the other side of the room where her doctor, Christie, is. 

"But you've also proven my point even further. I'm a soldier, i'm meant to move, and I have to help find Christen some way or another. But I can't just sit around watching everyone argue over what they think is the best plan and what isn't. We need to fight, bring some gun power to them instead of waiting. And what about Christen? I cant just leave her like a sitting duck, they could be torturing her or something for information. Lord knows they wouldn't just welcome her back into the ranks of Atlas!"

Christie is silent, her mouth twisted as she thinks. 

"Well, this isn't really a 50/50 chance thing. We can do it, the risk is more on the battlefield or wherever you go that can get you hurt again"  
"I don't want it as a permanent thing, I just want to help get Christen back and then I'll come back and do all the therapy you want me to do"  
Christie sighs heavily, "Alright. Let's go get you fitted then"

Julie can only half contain her excitement, a large smile plastered on her face as she walks out of the room with Christie. 

////

Tobin, Pinoe, and Mal have been wandering around the base for an hour now, only getting almost caught once. They've gotten past all the tanks and machines and more into the buildings. They're trying to find the room Christen is being held in whilst finding weak points in the base. Everyone has been talking and they've narrowed the plan down to either an inside infiltration or planting a bomb at the middle of the base. 

It's a ridiculously large place too, Hope guesses that it's their main headquarters. Not that the tanks and extremely large armed force didn't give that away at first. But it's definitely their main source of power, hitting it would put a significant amount of damage on the entire Atlas company. There's no civilians either, which is a huge plus to Hope since she likes the idea of a bomb more. 

"We're coming up on older buildings, I think a couple of them have basements judging by the windows near the floor. Christen could be in one of them", Tobins voice shakes Hope from her thoughts, her head flinging up to look at the three screens. 

Sure enough, the buildings they're looking at are definitely older than the ones closer to the middle of the base. They're made more out of brick and cinder block instead of glass and steel. There's tiny windows near the ground, something that definitely wasn't on the other buildings. 

"Are you getting any signals? If they haven't stripped her from her under armor she should have a locator", Alex explains, one of the first things she's said out loud today.   
Tobins voice turns disappointed, "No, Im not getting anything. I'm sorry Lex"  
"It's fine, just keep looking" 

Hope turns her attention towards Alex, trying to determine if it really is fine. There's nothing off about her, besides the fact that she seems exhausted. But everyone is tired, she would expect that. She's got her hair tied up and she's wearing one of Tobins sweaters and old soccer shorts, only thing different is she's not wearing her pink pre wrap and she's biting her nails. Which is obviously her being nervous about finding Christen, Hope would be the same way if her brother got captured by an enemy and she didn't know where he was. 

"Holy shit, Tobin look", all attention turns to the screens where they can see Pinoe pointing to something in the distance. 

Tobin's visor zooms in closer to a more lit area in the distance. There's two soldiers carrying - well, more like dragging - someone ok the sidewalk to a different building. The more Tobin zooms in the more the person looks like Christen, but it barely looks like her. Her hair is in a very loose, messy ponytail, her face is sunken in and there's cuts all over her face. She looks extremely weak, obviously not even strong enough to walk with the soldiers. Her clothing is battered and torn, blood stains cover most of the shirt and there's clear restraint marks on her wrists and ankles. 

"Fuck, she's being tortured Tobin you have to get her out of there!" Alex practically screams, cutting the silence.   
"We don't have the resources to do that right now Alex, im sorry", Carli says for Tobin, clearly not happy having to say it though.   
"You're kidding! Carli look at her! They're probably torturing her to no end! What about her heart condition? She could be dying and they wouldn't know it, we have to get her out of there!" There's tears falling freely down Alex's face now.   
"Lex", Tobins voice is soft, Hope sees Alex's demeanor change almost immediately, "We'll get her out. I promise. We just can't today, i'm sorry"   
"There has to be something you can do, make it easier for us to get to her or something?" Her voice is calmer now. 

Tobin is silent, her visor still fixed on Chris being dragged away into a building slightly smaller than the rest. She zooms back out when they get into the building, her view turning to a very tiny looking Mal. 

"Tobin?" Carli asks, wanting to know what she's thinking before she goes to do it. 

But she doesn't reply, and all of a sudden she cuts her mic off. 

"Tobin", its more of a command now, Hope grows anxious as she watches Tobin and Mal exchange in a silent conversation. 

They all watch as Tobin hands Mal what looks like a small locator and what Hope recognizes as a syringe of stimulant. Hope used to have to give those to her new recruits who couldn't keep up with the seniors, or to anyone they rescued that was on the verge of malnutrition and hunger. 

Tobin's view changes back and forth between the building Christen was taken in to Mal, until Mal furiously nods, turns her cloak back on, and practically sprints towards the building. 

Tobin's mic crackles back on, her voice sounding commanding and confident, "Pinoe and I are going to continue looking around. I gave Mal an edible tracker and some stimulant to keep Christen going for three days minimum, it'll give us time to come up with a solid plan without her dying on us and we'll be able to find her easily when we get back"  
"It's not what you did I'm worried about Tobin, but you sent Mal. Are you sure she can do it?"  
"It's for her sister, she can do anything if it depends on her life"

////

"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"  
"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"  
"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"

Mal kept repeating the words Tobin had said to her over and over again, fearing she might forget once she got to Christen. 

She managed to slip inside after a group of soldiers had swung the door open, the only problem was the building was a lot bigger than she imagined it would be. It was divided straight down the middle by a long, dimly lit hall. There were multiple doors on each side, all thick and steel with tiny holes at the top to see inside. There was also a set of stairs that went up and down, Mal didn't know where she should start looking. 

The other soldiers that had dragged Christen in hadn't come back out yet, so she debated on waiting for them to come back out. But she couldn't just sit and wait, especially if they were torturing her as she waited. 

She quickly checks all the room on the first floor, peeping through the tiny slit in the doors but has no luck in finding Christen. She makes her way down the stairs where it's even darker, she has to flip to her night vision to see clearly. 

This hall is slightly shorter than the one above, there's only three doors and they're heavily locked and thick. Mal can hear voices coming from the room directly in front of her, she sprints over to it and much to her dismay Christen is splayed across the floor with the two soldiers standing over her. She can't make out what they're saying, just that it's pointless to say anything because Christen is very clearly passed out. 

And Mal is ver clearly angry. It breaks her heart to see Christen so beaten and torn, she hasn't seen her like that in years. She knows her sister is strong and that she'll make it through this, but Mal can't help but feel a heaviness in her heart. She's never been a person to genuinely wish pain or death upon anyone else, but right now as she watches the two soldiers spit at her she can't help but hope that they end up dead. 

Seeing Christen like that brings up a lot of memories for Mal, she's almost too lost in her thoughts to notice the two soldiers walking back to the door. She quickly backs up and presses herself against the dark wall, holding her breath as the soldiers pass by. She waits until they're up the stairs and she hears the front door open and close to unlatch everything on the door and swing it open. 

To her surprise, Christen quickly jumps off the floor and scrambles back to the wall, almost shielding herself with her arms. 

"Please, no more today", her voice is weak and trembly, it breaks Mal's heart even more. 

She scrambles to turn her cloak off, taking off her helmet so Christen doesn't think some bigger soldier has come to torture her. 

"Chris, Chris it's me, Mal", she scrambles out, practically sprinting to the wall and taking out the supplies Tobin gave her.   
"Mal? What are you doing here? How'd you get here?" Christens voice is croakey and dry , she obviously hasn't been given any water recently.   
"I'm sorry Chris, shit i'm so sorry"  
"What? Why? You're here"  
A single tear rolls down Mal's cheek, "We can't- we can't rescue you today. We didn't think that- that we'd find you or that you'd be here we were just on a stupid scouting mission and-"  
"Mal", her voice is soft and assuring, "It's okay. I get it. You know where I am now, just please tell me you have a plan"  
Mal's face turns down, "Last I heard we couldn't come up with anything solid"

Christen sighs heavily and scoots up closer to the wall, wincing as she does. 

"Oh shit, right!"

She pulls the syringe out of her pocket, along with the tracker and a tiny canister of water. 

"Here, take this. It's an edible tracker. If you get moved or we can't find you right away when we attack we can find you with it. And I don't exactly know what's in this, but Tobin told me it would hold you up for at least three days", she flicks at the syringe and carefully takes Christens arm, "Something about stimulant and liquid protein or something like that"

Christen is hesitant as the syringe enters her skin, Mal tries her hardest to be gentle with her sister since she's so obviously been beaten up. 

"What all have they done?" She asks out of curiosity.   
"I don't remember to be honest. Just a lot of beating and cutting and shock therapy. I think they even water boarded me at one point but I can handle it Mal, don't worry. Just go get a plan started and take down those wretched sons of bitches"

Christen smiles, but it's weak. Mal didn't think she could get any sadder but she does. 

"Im sorry Chris, I really am", she softly hugs her sister, trying to get as much contact as possible before she inevitably has to leave.   
"It's okay Mal, I understand. I can hold off. Just be quick okay?"

Mal nods her head vigorously, quickly standing up and wiping the tears from her face. It takes all the strength in her body to turn around and head back out of the door, knowing that come tomorrow Christen is gonna be alone and being tortured again. She's crying furiously, she doesn't hold back her tears anymore, especially when she hears Christen yell to you. 

"I love you Mal, go kick some Atlas butt"

////

"It's the only way"  
"No! No it is not the only way!"  
"We can't get a team inside there's no way-", Carli starts but Tobin snaps at her.   
"There is always a way, Carli"  
"Tobin please-", Alex tries also but Tobin snaps again.   
"NO, no you can't just drop a nuclear bomb where innocent people are!"  
"No one in there is innocent Tobin, Im living proof of it"  
"Exactly! You were there and you're innocent now and you're fighting against Atlas, you're just proving my point even more"  
Alex scoffs, "I am nowhere near innocent"  
"Oh please, if you were told there'd be a nuclear bomb coming down on you you'd plead innocent", Tobin says mockingly, rolling her eyes. 

She can't see it, but Alex's fists clench, "No Tobin I wouldn't! I wouldn't because I did terrible things and I didn't stop them when I could have! You think I got those burns just for torture? No, I got them because I killed people. Hundreds of innocent people who didn't deserve any of it. If they told me there'd be a bomb I'd pray for them to send it faster"

Tobin is shocked, and so is everyone else she can see in the conference room. 

She doesn't really know what to say, Alex has never told her why she had those marks and she wasn't going to push for an answer until she was ready. But the things Alex did then, they forced her to do that. She's been told enough about Atlas to know Alex would never do anything like that willingly. 

"Alex, I-"  
"No", she cuts her off, pain evident in her voice, "I'm not going to discuss this with you right now. You can stand and tell us that this isn't a good idea but we out vote you, okay? I'm with this, Atlas did things that I want revenge for and I'm not about to lose you to some nuclear war gone wrong right when things are starting to be okay"

She marches out of the room with tears streaming down her face, leaving Tobin and everyone else stunned to silence. There's no movement, not for a while. Everyone is just standing there, taking in everything. Tobin can feel a tear run down her cheek, she knows she should go after Alex but what would she say? I'm sorry? For what? What would she be sorry for? Putting other people's lives before hers? She wasn't going to apologize for that, that's just who she is. She's selfless, she doesn't like death or killing or the war. She just wants to survive. 

But a part of her knows Alex is right. The Atlas company being destroyed would be worth it. But that's so many people dying, so many deaths on her hands and she doesn't know if she could handle it. She's already killed too many people for her liking, and yeah, war takes sacrifices but this is a really, really big sacrifice. 

And what's it all worth? The company would be taken down, Sentinel could start rebuilding America and the war would technically be over. There'd be no nuclear threats, no more fighting, no more death. Tobin could be happy, or at least try to be happy and in a house with Alex. 

Alex. God, that's all she thinks about. Alex this, Alex that. The solider has been on her mind 24/7 ever since she laid eyes on her and it's starting to drive her insane. Her beautiful blue eyes, her stupid pink prewrap that she seems to never run out of, her raspy voice and everything about her. 

Tobin would walk through a glass desert to be with Alex. She'd do anything for her, and maybe she was just overreacting because that's a lot of lives to be rid of but Alex is too special to her. She didn't even expect to be put through all the of this when she went to that Atlas base. She was only expecting to find rubble and no data, not a girlfriend who tried to kill her the first time they saw each other. 

It's kind of funny, the way everything is starting to work out. The more Tobin thinks about what her life would be like without Alex the more she starts doubting she'd even be alive. If Alex hadn't been there when she started remembering Lauren she'd probably still be back at base, locked up in her unit and starving herself. She wouldn't have had the strength to go find Ali and Ash, she wouldn't have the strength to even deal with this mission. And here she was, pushing past all of the stress because she just wants to keep Alex alive. 

Tobin loves Alex, really loves her and the more she thinks about it the more she realizes hundreds of deaths for peace would be worth it. 

And she was definitely not about to end this war on a note like this. They hadn't even talked after their first time, it just happened and they got right back up the next morning to get back to work. A part of Tobin knows that's what is gonna come with being with Alex during a war, but another part of her wishes they had talked. 

"Tobin?" Carli's voice cracks back through her earpiece, shaking her from her thoughts.   
"Requesting pick up", she says plainly, not wanting to do this right now, "Please"

Megan and Mal take that as a sign to grab their grapples back out, the three of them slowly making their way back up and over to the other side. 

No words are exchanged for the remainder of the mission. They silently make it through the woods and back to the pick up area where Ash is waiting in her silent helicopter. When Tobin slides into the seat next to Ash the ex-keeper looks at her expectantly. 

"You okay dude?"  
Tobin sighs, "I'm fine. Let's just go home"

It's the only thing she can say right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they'll rescue her soon i promise. anyone have any guesses to what julie is doing???

**Author's Note:**

> What are we thinking??


End file.
